


Wild Cards & Gambits

by teaandchess



Series: Games of Wonderland [2]
Category: Alice (TV 2009)
Genre: Alice in Wonderland References, Descent into Madness, Epic, F/M, Gen, Psychological Torture, True Love, Violence, War, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-12 11:48:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 31
Words: 183,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11161248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teaandchess/pseuds/teaandchess
Summary: A year after the events of Tea And Chess, Wonderland City has settled into a relatively peaceful existence. Living in Wonderland is never easy though and Alice and her friends are plunged back into adventure when an unlikely attack threatens to destroy Wonderland's peace once again.





	1. Heir Apparent

The cries of a small child filled the nursery, echoing through the single corridor leading to the main hall. It was long past midnight in Wonderland, the City quiet except for the occasional hum of Scarabs flying back and forth with cargo from all directions. The upper rooms of the Heart Palace were just as quiet despite the substantial number of courtiers it now housed. For a city its size, Wonderland City could be remarkably quiet in the dark of the night but not at all times. Though an unspoken rule that the area near the Palace was for the more refined shops and therefore quieter, the Heart rule could not control everything. For the past four months there had been substantially more crying that disturbed the once dignified silence of the Heart Palace.

The child's cries grew in intensity, clearly distressed by something and not about to be soothed. The pair of guards outside the nursery snapped to attention, throwing down their playing cards and chips as they remembered their charge and promptly their boredom and drowsiness was forgotten. They moved back into their places just in time when the Nanny, a tall thin woman whose bony and stern face hid a kind heart, poked her head out and whistled at them. Being who she was, she had a higher authority than they did and her whistle was not to be ignored; though it was often done in the same manner one would call a dog. The one nearest, a young Card who was rather indignant at the boring post of nursery watch, sighed and looked at her. He knew better than to disregard the Nanny but there were times when it was certainly tempting.

"Fetch one of the parents, will you?" she demanded lowly when he drew near, fluttering her thin hands impatiently to shoo him away. Resisting the urge to mimic her, the young man nodded, personally not relishing waking the King and Queen at this hour.

On the other hand, the last man that didn't think to wake them when their child was clearly upset had been promptly demoted to guarding the basement archives, which was even more boring than nursery detail.

* * *

In the Royal Apartment, Jack Heart, King of Wonderland, chewed on his lower lip thoughtfully as he stared at the papers and books left by his chief secretary. The papers were dictating the procedures and costs for the soon-to-be celebrated hundred and twentieth anniversary of undisputed Heart Rule and the five hundredth anniversary of the Lake Prison. Jack hadn't realised just how much planning went into such festivities in the city and it was only recently that his secretary had brought the subject to his attention. Which meant that there were a slew of odds and ends to tie up, festivals to plan, people to pay off…the usual when it came to Wonderland Politics. Jack had to use his connections with past Resistance members to get the goods needed to try to make this a passably decent celebration.

Then there was the problem that surrounded the Lake Prison itself. The latest requests for Royal Pardon were still flooding in and the variety in them meant that Jack had to go through each and every request carefully. There were dangerous criminals, chronic pickpockets and dream-drug sellers, ancient political rivals exiled by his mother; they all wanted a chance at freedom and it was custom every fifteen years to pardon select criminals. It fell to his position whether to grant those requests or not; a hard task when some of the crimes went from Buttered Fly poaching to serial slayings and it was hard to keep them in order. It would do with his luck to sign the wrong papers and end up freeing an insane criminal instead of a two-bit thief.

It was also difficult to concentrate when he was being stared at so intently. The tabby cat curled up on the divan was twitching its tail back and forth, its eyes held to small slits as it watched him. He had never thought a cat could look sly but this one succeeded easily. Jack wished he could just put the cat out of their rooms but, strangely, it would just reappear. It already wandered the halls, nothing more than a glorified mouser that Amelia kept collared and leashed. It should have humiliated the animal but more than once Jack had seen the wide grin the cat would give at him, the kind that made his skin crawl.

Not for the first time, he wished he had simply executed the Cheshire on the spot rather than allow for him to be imprisoned in a feline body. After all, the Cheshire's crimes had more than called for it. Anything would be better than having to deal with the eerie way the cat would stare at him at night. As if it knew some deep secret about Jack's future and was going to relish when it came to pass. Amelia said he was worrying too much about it but it was a feeling that he couldn't shake. The cat staring at him was almost as haunting as his still lingering guilt over the death of his old friend The Knave.

Resolving to ignore the cat, Jack bent his head back to his papers and scrummaged around for one of the books. Beyond the purring of the cat and the soft breathing of his sleeping wife, the room was blissfully still and silent. Jack quickly absorbed himself in his work, tallying the numbers in his own private ledger quickly. The knock at the door didn't make him look up from the heavy book of accounts he was reading and, outside, he heard one of the guards clear his throat. Jack didn't bother to look up, struggling to understand his secretary's nearly illegible writing.

"Sire?" the guard called out through the door. Sighing, Jack tapped his pen on the desk in irritation.

"Yes?" Jack answered and the man peeked through a crack in the door, not daring to enter. For the King to be up usually meant that he was in a particularly restless mood and the guard was not wanting to be the target of his frustration.

"The Nanny, Sire. She requests your presence," the guard told him and Jack frowned back down at his book, setting his pen to the side.

"I'll be there shortly," he answered tersely and with a relieved sigh the guard shut the door just as the baby started to cry louder.

When he heard the faint cries, Jack forgot his paperwork and looked over at where Amelia was starting to rise from their bed. The former Duchess had adapted to motherhood well, defying years of tradition in going against having her child given to another family to foster. It had been a long-standing custom that children of Royal families were raised by someone else so not to interfere with Royal duties. Even Jack had been raised by the Black Spades at one time when his mother could not stand her only son, and he had hated every long year of it. There was no positive side to be found in the Wonderland tradition that had made him endure a lonely childhood.

Going against tradition had shocked the Court but Amelia had persisted and often simply ignored the gossip that swirled. Her decision had made Jack proud and he knew how much she loved their son just by the way she guarded him so fiercely from the normal noble traditions. It did wear on her though, as she had to be both a mother and a Queen, not to mention a wife. Staring at her, Jack both admired her and worried about her. Her eyes and face were pale with exhaustion, hours of having to control the intricacies of the Court wearing thin on her, and Jack shook his head, standing from his chair. He made it to the bed before she could slip on her robe, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I'll go, 'Lia," he said, using his pet name for her to try to coax her to stay in bed. Her eyes, which were normally cool when in Court, flicked to his and she gave him an amused look filled with warmth.

"I've no problem going to check," she answered. "What is a mother for?"

"Which is why we Royals have nannies and normally put them to good use," Jack joked as he reached out and took her robe from her. He put his hands on her shoulders and firmly sat her back down. Amelia arched a brow and tipped her head back to stare up at him, not bothering to fix her slightly askew nightgown. She knew very well it would distract her husband and judging by the way he looked at her, it was certainly working.

"And look how you and I turned out," she pointed out, her tone dry with sarcasm. Jack smiled, remembering well his own strange upbringing. An upbringing where he had never seen his father or mother beyond scheduled ten-minute increments if he was lucky.

"I highly doubt our four-month old son will start a revolution and usurp the throne any time soon," he answered. "Go back to sleep, Amelia. It is probably a bad dream you know; he does get those."

"I usually go though. I don't mind," she said but her protests were a bit weaker when she saw her husband's resolve and his very clear concern for her.

"I'm home tonight and in no rush to finish the bureaucratic paperwork the Clubs have been having me review. I'll go. If I think it should last, I'll bring him to sleep with us." Jack cupped her cheek in his hand and lifted her face to his. "Besides, your bad dreams tend to wear you down enough. You shouldn't always add his nightmares to your own worries."

She didn't react to that reminder, but he hadn't expected her to. Amelia never discussed her nightmares with him, nor her terrible memories of her torturous weeks at the mercy of the Red King Archibades. They were now repressed as best as she could… but not in her dreams. Jack had learned that the only way to cope with such dreams was to simply pull her into his arms and let her shake and cry until she fell into a deeper sleep once more. He only hoped that one day it would not plague her as badly it did now, that one day she would trust him to fully explain what had happened in the weeks that had nearly cost her her sanity. Jack's own guilt about that had never ceased, and he doubted it would ever.

As if finally deciding to let him ease her fears, Amelia sighed and nodded, pulling her legs back onto the bed. Her hand went out though and grasped his belt buckle with surprising strength. She tugged him closer to the edge of the bed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "That reminds me," she said, her voice gone husky and she looked up at him through her long eyelashes. Jack stared down at her, recognizing that tone of voice intimately.

"Reminds you?" he asked in amusement and she smiled flirtatiously.

"Should you return alone, I believe that I was owed some time alone with my favourite Card," she commented and Jack's eyes flicked over her face. He felt her fingers trailing over his stomach and knew that he had to leave before he forgot about his crying child in the nursery.

"I'll be back shortly," he said with a grin and kissed her forehead. "And I intend to give you the time owed to you, my love."

"See that you do," Amelia answered, smiling as he left her alone again.

* * *

If Jack had ever been told months ago that he would be able to love so deeply that the sight of that person would make his heart ache, he would have turned up an imperious nose and dismissed that notion as something for the common man. It had taken a revolution, several near-death moments, a quest into the dangerous Checkerboard Taiga, a touch of magic and a fierce duel to make him realise that he was wrong. He had married Amelia almost exactly one year ago and she had fallen pregnant just as quickly, something that Hatter still ribbed Jack about though the King took it with good humour. Hatter's jokes about it meant nothing now that Jack experienced that deep feeling daily, as he had ever since the defeat of the Red King and the White Queen, whenever he looked at his wife. That feeling had touched him deeply and he had privately sworn never to ignore it again.

It had taken the birth of his tiny son to make him realise that it was possible to feel that depth of emotion for more than one person. His son had been born a month and a half early but had been remarkably healthy, but even with his good health Jack still worried over him. So he never missed a chance to be the one who came to look in on his child or to take over for a weary nanny at night. Nanny, inherited from another generation, beamed at him the moment he stepped into the nursery and bustled over with the child in her arms. The boy was still crying and beating his fists in the air, furiously wailing as if his life depended on it.

"I figured he'd take more kindly to his parents coddlin' him than me," she declared as she gingerly handed Jack his son.

"That's all right. I'll stay with him until he settles. Go and rest for a while," Jack said, nodding to the open bedroom door nearby. She curtsied awkwardly to him, eager to do his bidding, and Jack waited until she was gone before turning to look at his son.

Prince Royal William Richard Winston Heart stared up at his father; he was quiet now that someone was holding him whom he loved and trusted. His four-month old face already resembled his father's sharp features and he looked up at him with the still vivid blue eyes of his mother. Jack could see so much of himself already in his son and the boy was one of the brightest spots in his life. Knowing he was loved, Will gave him back as much love and Jack realised what he had been missing in his own lonely upbringing. Will almost cooed at his father, giggling when Jack gave him a mock-stern look as he held him up close near his face. Will's chubby baby arms flailed in the air for a moment.

"You scamp. You did it just to get her up, didn't you?" Jack asked and his son wiggled a bit in his arms. "I think you paid too much attention to your godfather when he last visited."

Will simply gurgled and peered up at his father as if wondering what was wrong with his godfather Hatter. Jack had been a bit leery about having the younger man be a godfather to his son, considering his past history and his general uncomfortable air around babies. But, to show that miracles did happen, Hatter had also become a friend to both Jack and Amelia. He had gradually lost his unease around his godson and visited on occasion to simply see him if he wasn't there on business first. Godparents were a novelty Jack introduced to Wonderland from his time in the Earth side of the Looking Glass, mostly to show Alice Hamilton some appreciation for her saving his kingdom twice and Hatter had been the only really good choice, the only real friend Jack had, for the godfather. Alice, on the other hand, had been the only choice he had had for godmother.

Will whimpered in his arms and Jack sighed, going over to the rocking chair set by the balcony window. The room was warmly decorated, and there was a vast amount of old nursery furniture retrieved from Amelia's family home; some so old that Jack thought that just touching them would cause them to break apart. The old antique chair creaked horribly as Jack warily lowered his weight onto it, not moving until he was certain it would stay upright without collapsing. He pulled Will up onto his chest and let his son nestle comfortably against the crook of his neck before he leaned back in the chair.

"Suppose we could keep going with the story I was telling you," Jack commented. "You like stories about my adventures, eh?"

With a gurgle, Will reached out and grasped his father's shirt tightly in one tiny fist. His warm little body nestled closer into Jack, and he babbled something unintelligible to his father. Fixing the blanket around Will, Jack frowned and looked at the ceiling. "Where did we leave off…I think we were talking about Charlie the White Knight, hmm?

His son babbled something else against his neck and Jack looked back down at him. "Jabberwock Hunt?" Will's blue eyes opened and he stared up at him, gurgling impatiently and Jack nodded. "Right. So, we were standing in the Wabe Forest along the Open Road, after the attacks of the Iron Lion…"

* * *

Will didn't sleep until Jack was rambling about the old Kingdom of the Knights, telling his son about the old society and the old White Knight who thought he practised the Black Arts. If there was one thing Jack had learned about his son, it was that the infant wasn't terribly fond of hearing about history. He would coo and laugh if his father told him a funny story or an adventure story, so Jack only used history as a back-up plan to get his son to sleep. He was still talking lowly about how the Taiga Wars started when he realized that his son was sound asleep, a small trail of drool dribbling down his chubby cheek. Grinning to himself, Jack ruffled the boy's soft blond hair and relaxed in his rocking chair.

"You know, history lessons for an four month old baby are rather unorthodox, even for your family," Amelia said from the doorway. She was leaning against the frame, her robe drawn close around her to ward off the chill.

Jack stood slowly and felt Will nuzzle his neck in his sleep. "He seems to enjoy the stories."

"As long as you hold off on stories about Jabberwocks, I don't see the harm," Amelia answered. Jack went a bit pale, as that had been the story he had been telling, but when Amelia looked at him he managed a perfectly blank expression that instantly made her suspicious. "Jack, we discussed this."

"It isn't anything more than he will eventually learn." Jack let her take the baby from his arms and followed her over to the crib. He could hear the Nanny in the other room up and moving again. "I thought you would be asleep."

"I missed having you in our bed. We don't often see each other, you know," his wife pointed out. "You've been so busy."

"It's coming up to the Lake Prison's five hundredth anniversary. Royal Pardons are standard but the more I look at who wants them…"

Amelia waited until she had their son properly lying in his crib before she straightened and turned to him. "Some are too dangerous to let out," she admitted, nodding her head to back up her words. She took him by his arm and led him from the room, being certain to close the door quietly behind them so not to wake the child. Jack turned to her, lines etched in his face from his exhaustion.

"What do you suppose I should do?" Jack asked her. It had become a good habit of his to ask her advice, even if he sometimes wondered at why she was so good at state-craft. She was as Court-trained as he, her mind a bit more devious as it had been more of a struggle to stay alive for her, and she tended to see things similarly to him.

"Perhaps it would not hurt to pardon the excusable for the Anniversary. The small-time crooks that stole things or the political prisoners still there for defying your mother; it would be something to show your charitable and forgiving nature. Maintaining the goodwill of Wonderland is just as paramount as protecting it." She sighed and began to walk with him back to their bedroom. "But what about the others?"

Jack made sure they were in their bedroom with the door closed tight before he answered her, "My mother's supporters will request for her hearing as well."

"Which you will not give," Amelia filled in and he nodded.

"Precisely."

"Then what is the hesitation?" she asked as she walked to their bed and threw her robe off carelessly. Jack clicked off his desk light before rubbing at his face slowly. He eyed the divan where the cat had been sleeping but it was gone from sight thankfully.

"It has been quiet…very quiet," he paused and watched as she climbed under the covers. "Too quiet. I've had reports of some political leanings to the old throne, mostly by those who had strong investments in the dealings of my mother. The more extreme of the White Rabbit is still circulating, underground now and stirring up trouble. The Suits take care of those troubles for me but it is almost as if something is festering. Even Dodo has gone back to his Library and Wonderland knows what he is getting up to while he's there."

Amelia made a face and rested back on her elbows. "Don't say that, darling. Every time you do, something bad usually happens and you regret it." A slow grin grew on her face and she batted her eyes seductively at him. "I really should get those thoughts from your head for a while."

Jack eyed her with a smile. "You should."

* * *

The Nanny muttered to herself as she folded up the young prince's clothing, her brief nap having refreshed her. She thanked the Gods that the King was more loving to his son than most of the nobility would have been; it made for rather easy work. She was too old to want more work and there was a good chance that this sort of job could lead to an easy retirement in several years. The thought made her hum an off-key melody as she worked, still low enough that the child in the next room wouldn't hear her and wake up. She didn't want to chance having to wake the King and Queen once more. It was her job to care for the prince and she was not about to be made redundant just because the child preferred his parents.

It was almost unnatural for a royal-bred Wonderland child to actually like their parents.

Lost in her humming, she did not hear the balcony door snick open nor the soft footsteps of someone approaching. What made her look up was the sudden chill in the air and she frowned, knowing that she had closed the windows earlier before the temperature dropped. "Hobgoblins," she grumbled to herself and went to shut the balcony door.

Something dark caught her eye and she twisted on her heel as the cloaked figure became clear in the dimly lit room. Whoever it was froze the minute she stepped into the room and the Nanny suddenly wished she hadn't left her bell in the other room to ring for the guards.

"Who're you? How'd you get past the outside guards?" she demanded, drawing herself up to her rather formidable height. It made her uneasy that the figure was between herself and the sleeping baby and she eyed the door.

"I wouldn't," the sexless voice said. It was a coarse, tuneless voice, as if the cold air had damaged their lungs and made their speech worse.

"You get out of here. Only their Majesties can come in here. I shall call the guards!" she threatened and the figure nodded beneath the cloak hood. The person took a step toward her with a stiff, ungainly gait.

"Of course. It is your duty after all and it is admirable that you take it so seriously. But first…" A hand lifted from the depths of the cloak and she saw a gloved white fist clenched tightly. Bending over, the figure leaned a bit toward her and then blew fine green dust over the Nanny. It settled on her shoulders and she sneezed instinctively as it invaded her nose. Almost immediately, the room spun in circles around her and she collapsed into an unconscious heap.

"Good riddance," the figure said, smiling in delight before turning toward the baby.


	2. A Hatter and a Hamilton

"You know, it still amazes me how long you can take to get ready." Alice Hamilton was leaning against the office desk littered with papers, eyeing the dark haired man trying on shirts across from her. She clicked her fingernails impatiently and tipped her head on the side, smirking at the sight of her wiry boyfriend struggling with his cuffs.

"Just enhancin' my natural beauty, Alice." Hatter was buttoning his shirt slowly, mismatching buttons now and then so that he had to restart all over again. Then, as if he was disgusted by what he tried on, he quickly discarded the shirt he had been about to wear and yanked another one out of the closet.

"It takes you an hour to do that?" she joked.

His glare reflecting off the mirror was his only response before sticking his head back into the closet to find another fashion ensemble to assault. Alice watched the twist in his muscles as he leaned over. The rough edges of his scars all along his torso added a rawness to him that caused her to subconsciously grin with want. His hair was its usual perfect wildness, defying gravity better than any hair gel her world could provide. Though thanks to the recent busy season he had let it grow longer than normal. She itched to run her fingers through it.

Hatter looked over his shoulder at her, well aware that she was ogling him.

"I'm a perfectionist," he answered with a deadpan expression. Rolling her eyes to avoid inflating his ego, she turned her head to look at the chalkboard on the wall. Though she had long ago given up on trying to decipher Hatter's codes and formulas, the lines and lines of figures and tea ingredients still managed to fascinate her.

Thinking she was ignoring him, Hatter made a face at the back of Alice's head before turning his attention back to the closet. Finally, he pulled out a dark burgundy silk shirt. He eyed it against his trousers, shrugged, and yanked the shirt on carelessly.

"Please. Last week you wore a green and yellow striped sock with a blue dotted sock on the other foot. Hardly fashion 101," Alice responded to his earlier "perfectionist" statement with a good natured groan. This time, Hatter rolled his eyes, and with a quick sweep of his hand through his hair, Hatter kicked the closet doors closed and whirled on his heel.

"This coming from the woman who was in the bathroom for over two hours, and refused to even let me bring her tea," Hatter pointed out. Alice sniffed and looked away.

"But I'm a woman. That makes sense. What if it got around that you took so long to get ready, oh Master of Underground Trade? With your reputation, a rumour like that could just ruin you," Alice teased and saw Hatter approach her out of the corner of her eye. No… Hatter didn't walk. He sauntered with a slow swagger that made it hard for her not to smile.

"You thinkin' of blackmailin' me to the masses, Miss Hamilton?" he demanded as he came only a few inches away from her. Alice reached up and pulled on the end of her ponytail as she cocked her head on the side, acting like she was thinking it over.

"Me? Think up that?"

Hatter eyed her. "Please, luv. You have been with me for a year, and I likely rubbed off on you. I know when you are about to try somethin'."

"I can still surprise you," Alice said flirtatiously, reaching up and fixing his collar for him. She had to stand on her toes to get the back of his collar and she inhaled slowly, smelling his sharp cologne. "Last night, for example."

She was aware of his intense gaze though she didn't lift her head; instead, she reached behind her to grab his tie for him off the desk. As she slid it around his neck, his hand lifted and brushed against hers. Alice smiled to herself, feeling the gentle squeeze he gave her hand.

"Well…it was an inventive use for my belts, I do give you that," Hatter agreed before he leaned forward to help her with his tie. Alice met his eyes, the shared memory passing between them, and she blushed at the intensity of his look. Hatter shrugged and broke the stare. " 'Course…I can't use that one belt, seein' as how it is now ruined."

"No one told you to rip it in half," Alice answered as she tugged on the end of his tie. "Not to mention what you did to the headboard."

"And no one told you to tie up my right hand with just a belt," Hatter grumbled good-naturedly. Alice stood on her tiptoes, and planted a quick kiss to his cheek.

"I'll buy you a new one," she offered, and he pursed his lips.

"Shiny one?" he asked, voice tinged with excitement.

"I swear you are just like a crow. Give you something shiny and you are happy," Alice said, and unconsciously they both looked at the windows at the four crows perched there.

"One of these days, I think you have to tell them they can go home," Hatter said, watching the birds warily. The birds had started following Alice when she had returned to Wonderland. They were always outside Hatter's windows, watching. They never disturbed them though, and on some occasions, where Emotion junkies had accosted Alice, they had actually helped her by pecking and frightening away the attackers.

"Ignore them, Hatter. They ignore you," Alice commented as she walked by him to get her coat.

"No, they don't. Last week one tried to bite me," he answered, going to the window and snapping the blinds shut. The birds squawked in protest outside, and he reached through the blinds to bang hard on the windows. "Get lost, lice-ridden bird brains." Alice arched a brow at him. Catching her look when he turned around he shrugged innocently, "What?"

"You don't think _that_ could be the reason why they are trying to bite you?" Alice asked in amusement.

"You have me bein' polite to everyone these days," Hatter spread his arms out to the side as if making supplication. He then rolled his eyes to the ceiling, and made a pathetic face as he held up his fingers, ticking them off as if making a list. " 'Don't pick on Dormie, Hatter. Don't make fun of Jack's stick-up-the-arse posture, Hatter. Don't teach your godson how to gamble, he's only four months old, Hatter.'" Pausing in his rant he pouted at her, "When can I please be rude to someone without you hasslin' me? I like bein' rude. It keeps people on their toes."

"Well, you can't be rude to my mother," Alice said

Hatter sighed and dropped his head back. He dreaded what was coming. Looking for any outlet to barter with he stalled," Can I please stay here and do…ugh… bookwork, got to keep me accounts in order an all?"

"No."

"I'll clean the flat then, luv. I'll wash all your clothes and finery, press it, and do any other chore you want me to do," Hatter offered desperately. Alice watched him as he haphazardly grabbed a dark Homburg cap from his side of the closet. The offer was tempting, as he did hate cleaning anything.

Then she remembered the last time he did laundry and she frowned. "For starters, you are not getting near my underwear again. Last time, I ended up needing to buy all new sets thanks to a supposed thieving 'fairy', who stole them all. I went without underwear for almost a week, Hatter…Or do you prefer I call you the Leader of the Panty Raid Brigade."

"But…" Hatter whined, unaffected by her name calling. Alice waved her hand in his face, effectively cutting off his rebuke.

"You're coming with me." She ended the argument before it could even start. However, before she could grin over her victory, she paused, and gave him a curious look. "Why don't you want to come with me to the Looking Glass? As long as you don't step through, you should be fine."

Hatter looked downright uncomfortable while he looked at his boots. "Well, it's mostly because I know how pleased your mum will actually be to see me…especially when it's because of me she doesn't have her daughter in her world."

Alice stared at him. She could truly see how much this bothered him through the way he fidgeted with his hat; passing the brim through his fingers over and over again. "Hatter, Mom understands," she began.

"Oh yeah, sure. She's probably just waitin' to get me alone, so she can grill me and rake me over hot coals. I know Mothers, Alice. Normally I was the one they didn't want around their girls," he said, and she grinned.

"Oh I wonder why."

"It ain't funny!" he exclaimed over her giggle. "Not only that, but she'll be stayin' here which will put a real damper on one of my favourite activities."

"Tea drinking? That's a social activity," Alice said with a straight face.

"Again, you ain't funny. A whole two weeks and the most I'll get to do is have a dozen cold baths, and pray that Dormie's legs don't start lookin' appealin'," Hatter complained. The visual that came to her head made Alice break into a laugh, the sound causing Hatter's mood to blacken further. He didn't think it was very funny; he had become accustomed to being able to seduce Alice all around Wonderland and he knew, just knew, that a mother figure would throw a wrench in his routine. A routine that he absolutely loved when it came to Alice and one he was more than irritated at having to avoid for the better part of two weeks. Alice finally managed to contain herself and came back to his side, taking his hand in hers.

"Look. Mom will be happy if I'm happy. And I am very happy here with you now. I was ecstatic when Jack said he could arrange a visit for her, and being that this is her first visit to Wonderland, I want to be there. And I want you with me," Alice explained. "Who better to fill her head with loads of information about the City?"

He still looked like a kicked puppy and Alice sighed. They would be late and he would bring this mood with him if she couldn't snap him out of it. That would certainly be entertaining, to bring a grumpy Hatter to meet her mother. Her mother who would likely be a little bit worried over her only child being happy and likely not to be understanding about her daughter's boyfriend being irritable due to him dreading the upcoming sex drought.

"Fine. If you come with me and don't complain, we can do something you want to do when we come back. Provided my mom gets settled in," Alice offered and he eyed her suspiciously.

"Anythin'? Most definitely then," he decided as he perked up. Alice rolled her eyes at his eager expression.

"Why do I think I could live to regret offering this?" Alice asked herself and Hatter grinned, tugging on her hand and pulling her into his arms. His mouth was inches from hers and she squirmed closer out of habit, feeling his arms tighten around her ribs.

"You never regret offerin' anything to me." The comment was made casually and she nodded agreeably.

"True. And you are so eager to accept all the time," she answered, reaching up with one hand to tug on his shirt. Hatter bent his head slightly, eyes glancing down between them.

"Makes us both lucky then, eh?" he asked her just before he brushed his lips across hers. Before she could move into his kiss Hatter lifted his head and she groaned, opening her eyes wider to see him grinning down at her. "Mind you, I've no doubt your Mum doesn't want to hear of half of what we've done in Wonderland."

She arched a brow at him curiously and he grinned wickedly, the glinting light in his eyes warning her just what he was up to.

"There was the one time in the back of the Diamond Silk House as I recall," he started and tipped his head on the side. He licked his lower lip and rolled his eyes up at the ceiling. "I believe you were showing me some of the nice dresses, and you came out in this tiny red number. Very nice and siren-y…just pulled me like a cord right behind you into that tiny dressing booth. We were next to a little old lady who gave us quite the look when we came back out."

Alice flushed at the memory, caught between remembering the passion of that moment and the embarrassment about being overheard by the old woman. Hatter, on the other hand, was lost in the memory of it, and she could almost feel the heat emanating from him.

"I had you pinned up against a wall, legs just so," he paused to nudge her feet apart with his toes and his hands drifted down her arms, "you had your arms on my shoulders and it was oh so easy to just lift you up. Made it easier when I felt your legs wrap around me. I think we might have shattered that mirror, we banged against it quite roughly..."

The memory of it pulled at her, and Hatter grinned as he watched her eyes narrow at him, her tongue flicking out to wet her lips. Finally, Alice groaned, pulling his head down to hers and kissing him. Her hand moved to cup the back of his head, her fingers caressing the nape of his neck gently. Hatter grinned through the kiss, deepening it as he tilted his head to the side to run his tongue over her bottom lip. His fingers slid down to the hem of her soft green dress, and once he had lifted it enough, he cupped her buttocks. He guided her backward until they bumped into his desk again, and Hatter lifted her up onto the only unoccupied edge easily. He broke the kiss for only a moment, to catch his breath before he swooped down again. Feeling her fingers tighten in his hair, he nipped at her tongue.

It had always been like this, always a quick moment that escalated in a desire so consuming that they tended to forget what they were supposed to be doing. Alice had once thought the passion would dampen down, but after a full year of being together it had yet to lose any steam. She had expected it to, and could still be surprised by its intensity. Hatter didn't seem surprised nor did he seem mind as he ran a hand down her front to cup one of her breasts through her green dress, the fitted bodice making it easy for him to trace the tops of her breasts with his fingers. Alice tugged at his hair before breaking the kiss, his head dropping so he could trail his lips over her neck. Moaning as he nipped at her skin, Alice opened her eyes, and suddenly saw the time on the odd upside down clock Hatter still had on a nearby wall.

"Hatter, we'll be late," she managed as she felt his stubble rake along her skin. He lifted his head and glanced over at the clock as well.

"Mm?" Clearly not caring, he turned his head and nuzzled her neck seductively.

"My mom will be upset," Alice tried and he shrugged, pressing tight against her as he used his other hand to cup the small of her back. It drew her closer to him and Alice almost forgot to breathe.

"Let her," he groaned against her ear, causing her to shiver when his teeth brushed her skin.

"Charlie is going to be there. He... he said he wanted to meet her," Alice whispered even as she bit back the moan he caused when he nipped at her earlobe.

"So?"

"So I really don't want her to experience Charlie on her own. It might frighten her. We… we need to go, I mean it," Alice explained, coming back to her senses though her body protested the shift in her desires. Hatter groaned in exasperation, resting his head on her shoulder as he took several shaky breaths in and out. When he finally lifted his head, Alice noticed the desperate look in his eyes, and just barely stopped herself from giggling.

"Already, your mother is just like Jack," he commented and she gave him a confused look.

"How so?"

Hatter shook his head. "Never mind. We'd better get moving, and you had better get a coat over that dress. Because if you don't, in five minutes I'll have you on that desk, and I doubt you'll stop me then."

Alice groaned and rolled her eyes, watching as he moved to the door leading to the Tea Shop. "Damn it, Hatter. Try to threaten me with things I don't want. If you don't, we might never get out of here."

"I'm working on that, luv…Gods know how I am workin' at that," Hatter answered as he went ahead to check on the closed shop. He had insisted on closing it for her Mother's visit, figuring correctly that the overly active store may be a bit overwhelming, especially if some Wonderlanders got over-excited by the presence of another Oyster. Hatter had a hard enough time dealing with the ones who thought he might sell Alice or her emotions; he didn't want to see how they'd react to her mother.

Well…he would have liked to see it, if only he wasn't certain Alice would kill him for trying something like that.

* * *

It had always struck Alice as a little strange, how easily she had adapted to life in Wonderland after those first weeks since her decision to stay with Hatter. With her decision made, it had been remarkably easy to adjust to the strangeness of Hatter's world and learn to live with it. Well...mostly. She still had her moments where she thought things were just too bizarre or too contradictory to what she knew. Then she would remember just where she was, and somehow she found it easier to accept. Both Hatter and Jack had tried to make her transition as easy as possible, Jack giving her work as an instructor for training his guards when she had proven rather hopeless at dealing with the strangeness that came with Hatter's business.

Alice suspected that Hatter had gone to Jack for help in finding her work to do, but since the gesture had been because he was worried about her, Alice hadn't minded. It was strangely fun to teach men who knew the bare bones about hand-to-hand combat; men who severely underestimated her time and time again. It was almost like having her own private judo studio. With consistent work it helped her retain a small fraction of her old life. Jack and Hatter both would participate at times, though there were times when her practice with Hatter would get rather intense, and turn into something quiet different than judo.

Yet even with all this time spent in Wonderland, time spent learning to adapt to its strangeness, she hadn't quite overcome her fear of heights, and she doubted that it would ever really leave her. Hatter had become used to holding her hand as they walked the ledges of Wonderland City together, and often did so without thinking about it now. He simply grabbed her hand and led her around the way a father would a child. He ignored the trembling of her hand in his as they walked along one of the crumbling ledges on the West side of Wonderland City, his usual saunter never wavering as he let her go close to the buildings while he kept to the edge. Alice still marveled that he could be so close to the edge and not show a sign of fear.

She certainly felt it for him though.

"Do you think," Alice started, going a bit green as Hatter leaned over to look down the twenty stories of buildings, 'that Jack might consider rebuilding the ledges to be a bit safer?"

"Eventually, luv, but I wouldn't hold your breath on it. Come on, we're almost late."

"So now you're eager?" she inquired curiously, and he turned his head, actually looking offended.

"'Course not! Just tryin' to get your mind off the ledges. Don't want you gettin' sick this time around."

"Very funny," she grumbled as she tugged on his hand, pulling him closer to her.

"Last time was for the kid's naming ceremony, when we had to get through the City to that little roof garden on the East Side. As I recall we nearly didn't make it," Hatter commented, trying to get her mind off the dizzying heights.

"I wasn't sick then...just...dizzy." Alice was determined not to let him goad her.

"Right...so when you turned that lovely shade of green - and remember how I love you in green -, and leaned over the edge, that was just for the view right?" Hatter asked as he pulled away, and hopped down a small embankment. Turning around, he helped her down the small bank, and then started off again. He looked over his shoulder at her. "So what are you grand plans for your mum, eh?"

"You really weren't listening earlier, were you?" Alice asked, exasperated. One of Hatter's most persistent habits was that if something didn't interest him, he'd likely tune it out. While tuning her out just led to another good argument on her part, Hatter just continued to tune her out until she ran out of steam. If anything, Alice sometimes wondered if he was avoiding fighting with her.

His avoidance to her arguments led to some rather explosive fights. The last time they fought she had stormed out, and had become lost half-way down the building, leaving a very frantic Hatter to try to find her. Alice had seen some of the darker sides to Wonderland in the mid-levels; saw the shadier dealings and had nearly been grabbed until both Hatter and the crows had shown up. Despite her insistence that she could take care of herself, she had to admit that Hatter seemed to have a bit of influence after the events of the White Queen. Rumor had spread throughout Wonderland like wildfire after her return and slowly, Jack had let the stories leak out to the public.

The stories had long since become a bit warped, but they protected Alice with a shroud of mysticism that, while not remotely true, seemed to keep any old Emotion junkies from bothering her. Hatter got more than his fair share of rumors circulating; most of them had people respecting and fearing him more than usual. Whether if any of the rumours were true made no difference to him or to her; all that mattered to Alice was that the real tragedy of the White Queen was kept factual.

The thought of the White Queen was uncomfortable, especially with the cold now starting to set in again.

Wonderland was entering its winter season, which meant frigid winds yet no snow, and she shivered as a draft went up her spine. Hatter chuckled and slung his arm over her shoulders, drawing her in tighter against his body. Alice moved up against him, tucking her chin down and tightening her hand against his.

"Comfy?" he asked.

"Of course," she answered.

* * *

 


	3. The Looking Glass Institute

" Cor... Jack's makin' this place look more lush than ever," Hatter admired as they entered the renovated foyer of the LGC Institute. A warm breeze from the heater was rather welcome after facing the first winter winds. Alice disentangled herself from Hatter, shaking out her coat as she did so. She then turned to look around her. She remembered this place looking quite different a year ago. The foyer had been redecorated since she had last been here; the gilded artwork was now adorned in bright silver, and the walls were painted in deep grey and blue. Gone were the lush grass carpets and panelled walls; instead, there were long flowing drapes and high skylights that let in shafts of bright sunlight. They created a glowing effect that made the entire room seem almost ethereal, like something from a dream. It was almost unsettling, to see the changes now. All at once it made her realize just how quickly the year had gone.

"It's...changed," she admitted for lack of anything else to say.

"Next thing you know he'll be requirin' us common folk to look like toffs when we come to this place, eh?" Hatter's sarcasm seemed lost on Alice when she didn't answer. He at first interpreted her silence as concern for her mother's arrival, but then deduced other thoughts based upon the look on her face. By the way she was staring in awe at the changes around her, Hatter finally realized that she hand't heard him. Giving her arm a squeeze, he went around her to the security desk, speaking quickly to the guard who had begun to eye him up and down. Like most of Jack's men, he bore a look of permanent boredom, and Hatter was hoping that by speaking quickly the guard would either get confused, or be amused, by his charming self and let them through. Apparently, Jackie-boy upped the security staff to having more than just basic motor skills, for this one was giving him the 3rd degree.

Which served to annoy Hatter even more than normal.

As Alice wandered around the room, Hatter argued with the guard. The guard kept questioning him as to whether he was actually allowed to be here. It was several minutes before the guard finally caved under Hatter's quick and constant chatter. He waved him away impatiently after Hatter showed him Jack's written permission for Carol Hamilton to come through the mirror. Pleased that he had won yet another argument, Hatter sauntered back over to Alice. He found her gazing upon one of the massive antique tapestries of Wonderland when he nudged her shoulder affectionately. Alice looked up at him, and gave him a smile before turning her attention back to it. The tapestry stuck out from the modern design of the room, the weaving showing two massive armies battling on a lake shore with jabberwocks and gryphons flying in the air. It was a rather macabre design that seemed to tell a rather dark story but of what he couldn't be certain.

"Now that's pretty old… and probably worth a quite a bit," Hatter observed, his latter comment coming more as an afterthought, a habit picked up from his years trading goods back and forth.

"What is the tapestry trying to depict?"

Hatter shrugged. "No idea. I've never seen it before in my life. It was likely woven yeeeeears ago," Hatter empathized with a drawn out 'year'. "Probably before we were modernized," he continued. "Things like this aren't even made any more, it just takes too long. Certainly sticks out like a sore thumb though against this posh background."

Alice looked around the room, trying to put the eerie tapestry from her mind. "It's beautiful, but I wonder why Jack brought it out."

"Guess Jackie-boy wanted to redecorate. Seems he's bringing back a touch of traditionalism," Hatter joked. Alice eyed him as he took her arm and began to lead her off down the hall.

"How so?" she asked.

"You know away from the more recent memories and the like," Hatter added soberly as they continued down the hall. The way he stiffened on the word memories wasn't lost on Alice. She sensed his underlining meaning, for they both had their share of bad memories about the Looking Glass. The last time he had been here was when he had been forcing her to leave without him; when he had felt the tingles of the Cheshire's curse afflicting him. Glancing at him, Alice could see how tense he was becoming the further they went through the brightly lit hall. She wondered what was going through his mind as his eyes darted about the room, almost as if he were looking for a way to escape.

Without hesitation, Alice reached out and took his hand, wrapping her fingers tight around his. In response, he took a deep breath before giving her a wide grin that didn't quite meet his eyes. Alice squeezed his hand again, concerned about the falseness in his expression.

"We won't be here long," she offered, and Hatter shrugged, trying to appear as if nothing was bothering him.

"I'm fine, luv. Let's go see who's here. Don't want Charlie gettin' all 'Black Arts' on us if we don't get there quick enough, you know. I've got enough to deal with tryin' to be all 'mannerly' for you," Hatter good-naturedly pouted, letting her lead him along. Alice chuckled, and almost skipped along beside him, causing him to smile genuinely this time. If anything, her enthusiasm was catching, and for a moment he was able to forget his own worries.

They rounded the next corner into the antechamber of the Looking Glass, and Hatter promptly collided with a blustering White Knight. Their collision was amplified by a rather loud bang that caused Alice jump in reflex. Tightening her hand around Hatter's to keep him from falling, Alice watched as Charlie's mismatched armor reverberated, causing yet another thunderous clang as he went falling back onto his buttocks. Sadly, despite Alice's firm grip on his hand, Hatter still stumbled forward. She pulled him back upright, and then turned her attention to the White Knight. She had to stifle a giggle that threatened to escape as she watched him puff up with bluster towards his unknowing attacker.

Charlie pushed himself up and stared at them, his jaw suddenly going somewhat slack, as he realized whom he had just crashed into. Beard suddenly twitching, his bright eyes glinted happily.

"Bloody hell, Charlie. Can't we ever have a normal greetin'?" Hatter demanded, as he meticulously straightened his coat and hat. Charlie, putting his hands on his knees, grunted in response as he tried valiantly to get up. His overweight armor appeared to have other plans, for he tumbled back down with undignified thump.

"Justalice...Harbinger! I had thought you were arriving. The superior senses gifted to me by the spirits of the other side had warned me and insisted I come here to greet you."

Alice put her hand over Hatter's mouth. "Don't start," she warned, and he rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. When she removed her hand he gave her an annoyed glare before turning his attention back at Charlie.

"How're you, Charlie?" he asked, reaching down and grabbing hold of Charlie's hand. The Knight let him pull him up to his feet, and then promptly let go, shaking himself off. He spent a few seconds readjusting his armour and chain mail to some sort of order before he finally looked at them both.

"As well as one could hope for this time of year. Once I had heard that your mother was coming into Wonderland, I thought that my vast knowledge would be of use. I even put aside my previous plans to finally clear the Wabe Forests of the more devious beasts that reside there. The great hunts are upon us you know, and I must endure the vast trials that _are_ the Jabberwock Hunts." His emphasis on the word 'are' gave his speech an almost regal appearance, making it sound as though he were speaking of a royal fox hunt rather than the dangerously foolish escapade that it truly was. Charlie then turned his head to the side, and Alice gasped. He was missing a good chunk out of his left ear; a bandage was wrapped around where the tip should have been.

"Charlie! What happened to you?" she asked, reaching out to grasp his shoulder gently. He almost seemed to puff up, clearly proud of his latest war wound.

"One of the necessities of battle, Alice. I am a Knight and unafraid of injury," he explained proudly. Hatter rolled his eyes.

"Cut yourself on your own lance?" he asked knowingly.

Charlie snorted. "Please... it happened to be my sword."

"So not really all that brave then," Hatter deadpanned. Alice nudged him, while trying not to smile

"I had been tracking several Jabberwocks with great success, but that Jabberwock pet of yours, Harbinger, has a new clutch of Jabbers, all just learning how to hunt. They pursued Arthur and I over hill and dale, through to the darkness of the Wabe Forest before we lost them near the swamps," Charlie explained and Hatter sighed, taking Alice's arm and leading her down the hall. Charlie followed them, his armour screeching as he moved.

"I told you not to chase Suzy. She's got no fear of anyone now. Had you asked I would have told you she had a clutch of babies," Hatter scolded Charlie as though he were a child. Alice grinned with amusement at how Suzy had, more or less, become Hatter's glorified pet. He had started visiting the somewhat tamed Jabberwock in the Wabe Forest not shortly after their defeat of the White Queen. It only really liked him, and tolerated her because she often came with Hatter. It still hated Charlie enough to chase him if he came into the Jabberwock territory.

"What does the Cook think of this?" Alice asked, knowing that the older woman likely had given him a talking to about it.

"Marta? She applauds my efforts so long as I bring back a share of borgroves," Charlie answered. "Elsewise, she does tend to yell at me."

" Well, that's what happens when you get a woman I guess. You know the old ball and chain," Hatter said jokingly to him. A sudden hard yank threw him off balance, and brought him to a stop.

"Oh, really?" Alice was not amused and she planted her hands on her hips and stared up at him. Charlie, who was not paying attention almost smacked into Hatter's back. Alice ignored him, and continued to glare at Hatter.

"What? It's not like you and I are married, are we?" Hatter knew instantly that his response was _clearly_ the wrong answer as she crossed her arms over her chest. The longer he struggled to think up an answer the more her irritation became apparent. Her thinned lips and arched brow were his only warnings that he was in trouble, and that there was little chance of him getting out of it in one piece. "It's just, you know, love equals worry and all that. "That...that's what I meant," Hatter said, clearly faltering under her blue gaze. "I was only jokin', luv."

"Right. Whatever," Alice ended the argument, though anger still shone in her eyes as she flounced away from him. Hatter stared after her as she walked ahead; confused by her sudden mood swing. He was startled out of his confusion when Charlie clapped a hand onto his shoulder.

"Not sure what that was about," Hatter admitted as he and Charlie followed Alice down the hall to the doors. Charlie sighed and shrugged.

"I am quite certain she is just nervous about seeing her mother once again."

Hatter exchanged a look with him, still baffled by his girlfriend's outburst. It was _only_ a joke after all.

"I can only hope that is all," Hatter grumbled, trying hard to think of a way to get back into Alice's good graces before her mother arrived.

* * *

By the time they entered the Looking Glass Chamber, Hatter and Charlie had caught up with Alice. The Looking Glass stood near a small set of stairs, held in place by a gilded silver stand. It shined brightly in the glare of the lights. Standing near the doors, Alice looked over her shoulder at them and then looked back around to where the Technicians were bustling back and forth, warming up the Looking Glass. At the high desk, there was one man sitting, almost completely hidden; he was staring at something in his hands with his head bent over in concentration. The others, who were all dressed identically and carrying a variety of equipment, were checking the mirror stats. There was a hum of electricity in the air, the lights at the base of the mirror flickering rapidly in time with the lights on the wall. It was a strange light-show to watch, and Alice found that it hurt her eyes when trying to follow their flashy pattern.

A cool hand suddenly slipped into hers, and tugged gently to draw her attention away. Reluctantly, Alice turned her eyes to Hatter who was standing at her side. He stared back her intently, his grip not changing. It was clear that he wanted to talk to her. Behind him, Charlie clearly sensed that he wasn't wanted at the moment, and moved off to speak to one of the Technicians. Alice turned her head to watch him go and Hatter sighed. Reaching up and cupping her chin so that he could turn her head toward him.

"I'm sorry, Alice." His thumb drew a small circle on her cheek. "I was bein' a prat, I guess."

She blinked, well aware that he hated to apologize, and shook her head. She herself wasn't sure as to why she had been so irritated by Hatter's attempt at humour. He had made far worse jokes in the past that had never upset her. Chalking it up to a moment's irrationality, Alice smiled back at him. "I'm sorry too. I guess I'm just nervous about my mom coming here. I let it get to me."

Hatter nodded. "I figured. Still, luv, I didn't think it'd upset you. What was it that set you off? So's that I don't do it again. It won't do us any good if you're mad at me while your mum is here."

There was a faintly mocking tone to his voice that ruined both the moment and his apology. Alice inhaled deeply to calm her temper, guessing that he really was a bit clueless about this.

"It's nothing," Alice said, turning away from him, but Hatter's unrelenting grip turned her back toward him. "Hatter," she warned, but was cut off by his sudden plea.

"It's clearly something, and you know I hate arguin'."

Rolling her eyes, Alice pointed out "Please, you love to argue. Hell, I think it is something you thrive on."

"Ok, I'll admit to that luv. I just hate to argue if there is no chance of make-up sex," Hatter relented, grinning at her. Alice sighed in exasperation, knowing he was trying to make her laugh and failing miserably. Not everything could be made into a joke and with both her sudden temper and her nervousness about her mother arriving, Alice couldn't bring herself to laugh.

"It is honestly nothing," she insisted, realizing there was no point in explaining something she herself could not understand. Hatter's dark eyes flickered over her face, clearly reading her, and it made Alice feel uncomfortable that he could see past her attempt to put him off. He had always found it easier to read her, while on the flip side Alice found it harder to read him. It was always something that unnerved her. Hatter's fingers softened around hers, and he brought her hand up to rest on his chest; his eyes still intense. Alice could feel the slow beat of his heart through the silk of his shirt, and for some reason it relaxed her. She hadn't realized how tense she was until she felt the stiffness in her shoulders slowly leave.

"Alice…I'll be honest I've never see you react like that. So, to keep the peace I won't bring up the ball and chain thing again, 'kay?" he offered and Alice shrugged, dropping her chin further.

"Hatter, I don't know why it bothered me. Just leave it alone," she grumbled, fingers picking at his shirt absentmindedly. She began to stutter, trying hard to think it over herself. "It's just...I just...I thought..."

"What? The way I put the damn thought is what's bothering you, or is it the thought itself?" he asked.

"It's just that we've been together for a year, Hatter," Alice started, and he tipped his head on the side.

"What? Were you wantin' to get married?" Hatter's voice was remarkably soft, and Alice jerked her chin up. She stared at him, shocked by the casual way he put the question, and by the equally challenging look in his eyes. As if he were daring her to answer him. Alice licked her suddenly dry lips.

"I...uh..." She stuttered to a stop, and Hatter looked over her shoulder at an approaching Technician. The man clearly didn't care that he was interrupting, and Hatter took the distraction as good sign since Alice was still staring at him in bewilderment.

"We're ready to begin pulling the travellers through. If you please, Miss. Hamilton, we can have you watch from the nearby platform," the Technician offered. When Alice didn't respond he cleared his throat. She jerked as if he had slapped her. Turning her blue eyes away from Hatter to stare at the technician, he continued, "Your mother, I believe, was the one coming through?"

"Yes, thank you." Alice seemed to have lost her voice, for it was raspy with tension. The Technician looked back to Hatter.

"What about you?" he asked politely. Hatter held up both hands.

"I'll be back here. Alice will be fine on her own," he answered, and Alice nodded in agreement. Chewing on her lower lip, Alice let the Technician take her arm. She chanced a look back at Hatter. He gave her an encouraging look. It didn't help. In fact, it felt as though he was making light of what he had just asked her, as though it were no different than commenting on the weather and not as important as it should be. Alice turned back around still confused. She knew Hatter enjoyed finding ways to throw her off. It was so hard to be sure if what he said was in fact what he actually meant. The Technician cleared his throat again to catch her attention, and Alice looked back around to see him watching her politely.

"Miss. Alice?" He helped her out of her coat and then gestured to the side, "If you'll stand here please. You'll be out of the way if there are any complications when your mother comes through. You'll have to wait until we signal that your mother is fine before you can go to meet her."

Resolving to put Hatter's question from her mind until she could get him alone and talk seriously, Alice took her place near the steps. She regarded her reflection in the shimmering Looking Glass. The lights at its base had stopped flickering so wildly, so that it no longer hurt her eyes, and she was able to look at it for a longer period of time. Staring at herself, Alice knew her mother wouldn't think too much had changed. She was dressed in vintage clothing more authentic than any she had bought in her home world, but nothing too strange. Her hair was still the same long length only styled a bit differently. The only real changes Alice could see was that her skin seemed a bit finer, more pearlescent than before. It was highlighted by the gryphon marking that lined her neck and curled around the low shoulders of her dress.

Without thinking about it, she reached up and traced the gryphon mark, almost imagining that she could feel it warming to her touch. Not once, since Alice had returned to Wonderland, had she touched her inner power. Despite all the events surrounding the White Queen's prophecy of what Alice would turn into should she remain in Wonderland and tap into her inner glow, Alice had never once felt the temptation. There hadn't been the need, since life had been surprisingly peaceful. But now and then, when she wasn't thinking about it, she would feel that glow's warmth. It would often happen when she was feeling sad or angry, or whenever her emotions would flare. She would be caught unaware to its warmth; oblivious to its occurrence and as to why. Invariably it was Hatter who would notice something different. One time, without warning, all of the customers in his Tea Shop had burst into tears at a time when Alice had been feeling homesick. The most detectable clue to her power was when the flowers in his grass carpets would suddenly bloom whenever Alice had been happy. They had decided it was best to just ignore it, but on more than on occasion Alice had wondered just what her lack of control could mean. It was as though the pull of her emotions were what brought her glow's power to the surface.

_What was she to do? Not feel?_

And she wasn't sure if Hatter really was as comfortable with it as he came across.

Spying his reflection in the mirror, Alice could see Hatter glancing around the room like a frightened rabbit looking for a way to escape. Though he had said he was fine, Alice wondered if pushing him to come had been the wrong decision. She had just wanted him to be with her, to give her mom a better welcome. Hatter, when he put his mind to it, could be quite charming. She herself had always been amazed at how much he knew about Wonderland. She suspected that he had so much knowledge locked away in his mind that it could make Dodo's Great Library blush with envy. The question was would he ever share it with her.

It seemed that the answer would be no. Ever since Chesh's curse, Hatter had become even more attentive to control the nature of his deeply rooted madness. Only now and then did she see tiny fractions reflect in his eyes; only occasionally would he spout off some random rhyme or reason that could baffle her. Much like her glow and power, it came and went depending on his moods and the situation. It no longer frightened her as deeply as it once had. Yet Alice could see, even from a distance, that he was already feeling the effects of the Looking Glass.

Flicking her eyes back to the Technicians, Alice wondered how much longer it would take before her mother came through. The two men who had been checking the stats suddenly jogged to the opposite side of her. The one standing at the console nodding to them once, signalling that they were in their proper place. Satisfied, he twisted the ring into place. There was a loud ding as the surface of the mirror suddenly rippled. The ripples changed in colour, growing larger and larger until they covered the entire surface of the Looking Glass. The movement was slow and gentle. Then, suddenly, the ripples contracted and almost seemed to vibrate. Confused, Alice looked at the nearby Technician.

Catching her look, he smiled. "It hasn't quite been the same for the past year, but I assure you that nothing is too out of the ordinary."

Alice looked back at the Looking Glass to see that it was glowing green. Suddenly, a man came out and Alice had to blink several times to make sure she wasn't seeing things. He was a Suit, judging by the way he resembled most of Jack's personal guard, and he stepped onto the platform as if he had just come through a doorway. Holding her breath, Alice waited anxiously. The ripples happened again, and just as quickly, her mother fell through to her knees beside the Suit. Her mother, who hadn't changed at all from what Alice could see, was gasping for breath and struggling to keep herself from hyperventilating. Knowing how she felt, Alice looked at the Technicians anxiously for a sign that everything was okay.

* * *

Still standing in the doorway, Hatter took in the scene gravely. He wasn't sure why, but he was starting to get that tiny nibble of doubt in the back of his mind that was warning him something was about to go terribly wrong. He had calmed his own nerves down enough about being here that he wasn't about to run out of the chamber at the first sign of trouble. Still, there was something that kept bothering him, like a scratch he couldn't itch. Glancing around the room, he searched for suspects that may have brought about his heightened apprehension. He looked to where Charlie stood at the base of the stairs, and immediately dismissed the Knight from his mind. It wasn't Charlie and his constant jitteriness that was bothering him; there was something else…Something that had his instincts whirling and on edge.

Eyeing the surrounding rooms, Hatter knew that this room wasn't helping his unease. So much about the Looking Glass had changed. In fact, if he had thought it possible, the mirror almost seemed... sick. Out of habit, Hatter flexed his right hand near his side, and looked at Alice and her mother again, his hand going into a fist without him thinking about it. They were still standing far enough apart, with one Technician bending over Carol Hamilton to check her pulse and breathing. He was a new one, from what Hatter could tell.

 _Come to think of it,_ Hatter thought to himself, _I don't know any of these people._

Hatter turned his head as the glare from the Looking Glass became too much, and noticed that the Technician at the desk was slumped over. His head was resting on the desk as if he had fallen asleep. Hatter took a step further into the room to get a better look, having to lean over to the side to see around the high side of the desk. Due to the rather spectacular light show going on with the Looking Glass, no one had noticed that there was now a knife sticking up out of the back of the Technician's head. Blood was dripping slowly off the desk edge, and the man's face was frozen into en expression of horror.

Hatter's eyes widened, realizing too late as to why his instincts were telling him that something was wrong. Turning his head to warn Alice, he noticed that the lights at the bottom of the mirror platform were systematically going from yellow to red. He was watching a countdown. Without thinking, he ran toward the platform. Charlie turned to look at him, and Hatter grabbed his shoulder. He hissed, "Something's wrong!" to Charlie while giving him a push.

Charlie stared at him in bewilderment, but Hatter was already pushing past him. The lights at the base were flickering rapidly, and Hatter felt a cold pang of fear that he hadn't felt in a very long time. "Alice!" he shouted, hearing Charlie marching up the steps behind him as quickly as he could. Alice turned her confused eyes to him. Just as Hatter heard a buzzing in the air he grabbed her, swinging her towards his body. He heard her cry out just as he used his body to shove her forward, forcing her to go over the edge of the platform and on to the floor. The moment they were in the air the entire Looking Glass platform exploded with a loud rush of smoke and fire. Following suit, a series of explosions destroyed another section of the Looking Glass platform, as if the base itself had been lined with bombs.

Hatter landed hard on top of Alice and he heard her cry out in pain just before the wind was knocked out of her, the back of her head banging against the tile. Hatter gasped for his own breath, his ribs aching from the grip Alice had on him. Her nails dug into his coat, gripping him so tightly that he felt the sharp edge of them digging into his skin. He could hear her gasping for breath, and Hatter lifted himself up onto his hands and knees above her. Glancing over his shoulder, Hatter saw Charlie grabbing hold of an unconscious Carol by her wrist, yanking her off the platform despite the fire and smoke. Thankful for the Knight, Hatter was about to move off of Alice when he looked at the Looking Glass itself. He could see that the Looking Glass seemed to be swelling up, as if it were inflating and bulging the way a balloon would have. Cracks ripped through the strange mirror, marring its once flawless surface, and Hatter heard the screech of something exploding inside of it. Only guessing at what was about to happen, he threw himself back on top of Alice, covering as much of her as possible, and bracketed his arms around her head before he lowered his face near hers.

Alice pushed at him for only a moment before she too heard the deafening explosions coming from the Looking Glass.

Hatter felt the Looking Glass explode, shards tearing through the room while a gust of wind ripped through the hall, a hot back-draft that was gone as quickly as it came. Tiny pieces of glass embedded themselves into his hands, and the exposed part of his neck, causing him to curse in pain. He shook his head to try to dislodge some of the glass he could feel in his hair but he could still feel the faint ooze of blood weeping from the tiny welts on his neck. Alice was trembling beneath him, clutching at his sides, and he heard her crying out as another explosion ripped through the building. Hatter's ears began to ring painfully from the sound of the explosions, overlapping his hearing so that all he heard was a hollow hum. Deafened by the explosions and desperate for Alice not to move until he knew she was safe, Hatter waited until the wind was gone and eventually lifted his head to look around.

All he could see were the pathetic remnants of what had once been the Looking Glass. Technicians lay dead around its base, shrouded in smoke and impaled by massive glass shards. Hatter knew that it had been pure luck that had saved him and Alice from being killed. Glancing back down, he noticed that she had fainted, likely from the force of their fall. With a grimace, he lifted himself further off of her to avoid crushing her and looked around. Through the smoke and fire, it was what he couldn't see that made his stomach plummet.

Both Charlie and Carol were gone from sight.


	4. Two Blinds

Alice woke to the sound of ringing in her ears. Slowly cracking her eyes open, she tried to take in her surroundings. Her whimper of pain was drowned out by that obnoxious ringing, and it was beginning to annoy her. Pushing her annoyance to the side, she began to focus. Her vision started to clear, revealing dark brown ceiling struts. There was a faint design of whirls and golden circles that she seemed to recognize. Her eyes swayed drowsily as she tried to remember how she ended up in this confusing dilemma. Something had happened…right? Images of exploding glass and wood perforated her memories like a bad dream. Perhaps her mind, in its nervous state, had made it all up. Yes, that had to be it.

Who in Wonderland would blow up the legendary Looking Glass? It was lunacy.

Alice's thoughts turned to more physical issues as she realized that the obnoxious ringing was actually coming from her own ears. Something was defiantly wrong. She lifted her hand to brush her hair out of her face, and felt a soft gauze that had been wrapped around her fingers. The movement made her feel a dull ache in her body that was a mixture of pins and needles and actual pain. Her entire body ached.

Then, her stomach suddenly did a fast rise and fall, happening fast and hard. Alice groaned and rolled onto her side to try to stop the contents of her stomach from exiting out her mouth.

The situation became real then. More than it hThe marks on her arms, the way the room swam when she tried to focus…Someone really had blown up the Looking Glass…while she was in front of it!

Judging by the way her body hurt, it was certainly real.

Though disoriented, Alice was able to focus on someone calling her name. She could vaguely hear their voice through the dull roar still echoing in her ears. She closed her eyes, concentrating on the soft sound beneath the roar. The voice had softened, becoming clearer as she focussed. Alice quickly took several deep breaths, forcing her body to relax. Eventually, the roar died down enough for her to hear properly. Even so, the sudden change in her hearing caused her to wince in pain.

"Easy, luv, easy," Hatter's familiar voice cautioned from somewhere nearby. She felt the bed sink slightly as he sat beside her, one of his hands squeezing her arm gently to let her know where he was. A cold cloth pressed against her forehead, but Alice could not take solace in Hatter's comforting touch. Her stomach was still revolting against her and she lifted her hand to her mouth.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Alice moaned before she felt her throat clench in warning. She heard Hatter drag something across the floor without moving from her side. Opening her eyes, she saw the empty bucket he had dragged, and leaned over it gratefully. Hatter's hand gathered her long hair back, and held it for her. His other hand rubbed at her back gently. Alice clutched the sides of the pail, her nails digging into the plastic sides as she waited for the inevitable. Without any thought to modesty, she began to dry-heave. Her body was desperate to get rid of the smoke and dust she had inhaled, but despite her efforts nothing came out beyond a faint bit of saliva. Alice waited until she stopped retching before rolling to her back; her sides aching from her stomach's inability to turn itself inside out. It still felt like it had done so though and she groaned in misery at the feel of it. Alice wiped her hand across her mouth, and waited for her head to clear before lifting herself onto her elbows. She kept her eyes half-closed, finding even the muted light painful.

"Hatter?" her voice was raw.

"I'm here, Alice. You've been out for a few hours... Gods I was worried about you," Hatter whispered, and she looked up to see him hovering over her. His familiar face had a strained expression and slight bruising, but otherwise he seemed fine. He was naked to the waist, with a damp towel flung over his shoulder. Beneath the towel she could see gauze wrapped around his left shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Alice asked. Her voice was hoarse, but she knew he heard her. She noticed he was speaking louder than normal, as if his ears were also suffering from an intolerable ringing.

"Been better. Couple of cuts, but nothin' terrible," Hatter shrugged with nonchalance. "I think I hurt you when we went topplin' down. Likely bruised some ribs. I knocked the wind out a ya, that's for sure," his eyes turned dark with concern as he drew a shaky breath. "While you were resting I had the Doc come and give you a once over. He said you'd bumped your head, but nothin' major." Hatter's hand went out and brushed over her cheek gently. Alice stared at him before she pushed herself up against the headboard of their bed. The pillows provided her aching back some relief. She realized that she had been put into one of Hatter's old shirts, her dress lying draped over the end of the bed. Hatter's hat was casually thrown on top of it. The relatively new dress was ruined, for it was covered in soot and shredded at the hemline.

Hatter stood, now that he was reassured that she was awake, and limped over to the table on the other side of the room. Alice watched him, noticing small red marks that marred his back and hands. They were tiny cuts, but likely painful enough to cause constant discomfort. Glancing down, she observed that her own hands were covered in gauze and medical tape. Judging from the way her body ached she figured she'd be feeling her injuries for a while yet. Perhaps a hot bath would relieve the ache. Reaching up, Alice pushed her hair behind one ear, but paused when she heard the faint ping of several tiny glass shards striking against the buttons on the shirt.

That was all it took. Tiny shards of glass falling like rain had finally brought her back to cold reality. And reality hurt. Memories of the events from just hours before doused over her like icy water. Alice gasped as though she were drowning, the shock ripping through her. She jerked forward, sitting up straight before almost collapsing onto her side. "Oh God...Mom," Alice whispered, her mind still vividly replaying those last moments before Hatter had saved her. She remembered how they had exchanged a look just before, a look that had changed to horror as the explosion ripped through the platform. Suddenly, it became _too_ real. She wanted her mind to take it back, for her memories to be a hallucination... Alice cried out in grief as the pain ripped through her. The pained cry brought Hatter running back to her from the kitchen. He was holding a glass of cold mint tea that he roughly set it down on the night-stand before he sat beside her. Alice's sobs were bordering on hysterical; the thought of losing her only parent was more terrifying than almost anything she had ever experienced.

She was only dimly aware of Hatter's rough grip on her shoulders.

"Alice! Calm down!" Hatter shook her gently, but not enough to hurt her. He had only seen her cry like this once before when she had lost her father, and it scared him. When the shaking did nothing, he cupped her face and tried to hold her still. He had to force her to look at him; tightening his grip when she tried to fight him. "Alice, Alice. Listen to me. Damn it Alice, look at me!"

The desperation and tension in his voice stilled her enough to meet his gaze. With tear stained-eyes, Alice had a look of fear and desperation. Hatter knew that if he didn't calm her down soon, nothing would. Firming his resolve, he kept her still as best as he could. He could feel her getting ready to break again.

"I think your Mum is alive, but you need to calm down. Panickin' won't do nothin' for any of us. Breathe, luv. You _need_ to breathe," Hatter pleaded gently. Alice, steadied by this new information and by his touch, took his advice. Taking deep breaths she tried to calm herself down. She hiccupped several times as the sobs tried to mingle with her breathing. Hatter kept smoothing his hand down her hair, caressing her cheek ever so often. Eventually, Hatter just pulled her into his arms. He pressed her face against his bare neck, and rocked her gently. "It's ok, luv. I know how scared you are. I'm a mite bit terrified me'self." Hatter rubbed her back, and waited until her crying softened. "Just breathe."

Alice waited until her emotions felt like they were back under control before lifting her head again. "I'm... I'm so sorry."

He shook his head, knowing how strong she liked to portray herself. Alice never did like to show her weaker side to him, and had the circumstances been a bit different, he would have found it endearing. "It's natural, luv. What with the explosion and all that happened, I'd be worried if you didn't cry," he consoled her worry with a genuine grin.

Alice wiped her hand across her eyes and gave him a shaky smile in return. When his hand smoothed down the back of her head, she cleared her throat and sniffed. "My mom?"

"Ok…Bear with me on this one. 'ad one of my moments of genius I guess. I didn't want us going to the Hospital. We'd never get out, you know. We'd be stuck there for hours listening to a slew of doctors tell us nonsense we already know. But -and I emphasize on the but- before I brought you here I made sure to get a good look 'round the room. Alice, your mom was missin'. Both her, and Charlie were gone. I didn't see a sign of 'em anywhere," Hatter explained, his tone gentle so to soften the blow of her mother being missing. Watching the way her eyes darted around, Hatter sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He saw her glance at the glass on the table and quickly handed it over. He waited patiently until she had finished gulping half of the cold tea down before continuing, "I'm not sure what happened, luv."

"Okay." Alice licked her lips and closed her eyes. She felt him take the glass from her and set it back on the bedside table. "So you think she's alive?"

Hatter nodded. "That would be my guess, luv. This was too well planned."

Alice still felt ready to cry as the hopelessness threatened to consume her, but one look at Hatter's face strengthened her. He seemed so sure, and Alice was ready to cling to any possible hope. The only problem was how hazy her memory seemed to be. From what she could remember the explosion has been rather big and the destruction incredible.

"How much was destroyed?" Alice tried to clarify, clearing her throat when her voice came out husky from crying. The tea hadn't quite helped but at least her mouth didn't have that terrible taste.

"Entire room… Hell, pretty much the whole building. Couldn't see much really though; there was too much smoke and then the damn sprinklers went off. Got us a proper drenching, which made it even more a pain in the arse to slip out unnoticed. I got us cleared out of there though. Otherwise we'd be all drugged up in the hospital, drooling on our selves while they try to press us with their idiotic interrogation techniques," Hatter explained, starting to babble. "Whatever happened to good old fashioned silence in hospitals, not to mention patient-doctor dependability...I mean…"

Alice shook her head to cut him off, "Hatter..."

He coughed this time, glad she had caught him mid-rant. "Sorry. Before we left, once I was able to move that is, there was not much of the room left to take in. Dead Techs were everywhere, not to mention the Looking Glass itself was obliterated. But there was no sign of Charlie or your Mother. Somethin' happened. This was too planned out. Alice. Random attacks don't happen here, especially not when the Looking Glass is usually so well guarded," Hatter finished. Alice frowned, puzzling it over in her head. The relief that her mother could be alive was short lived as anger began to overwhelm her. Someone had nearly killed all of them.

"Who would want to attack us?" His raised eyebrow and deadpanned gaze caused her to rephrase her question. Hatter wasn't terribly fond of dealing in absolutes. "Ok. Wrong way to put that. Who would want to destroy the Looking Glass?" Alice asked, and Hatter shrugged.

"Anyone really. Wonderland has its share of nut-jobs and junkies. They pro'lly all think that doing some harm to anything that smacks of old Wonderland, will somehow bring about a better life. The attack might not have been aimed at any of us; we could have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or, and I know you don't want to hear this, it could be because your mother was an untapped Oyster. Two options and neither are very good. That and the fact that The Looking Glass is the only path to your world. Alice, whoever planned it..."

"Would have a very good reason indeed to do something so utterly stupid." Jack's voice rang out through Hatter's flat. Hatter jerked to turn around and Alice to sat up straighter. Neither of them had heard him enter, and without Dormie or the Flowers running the Tea Shop, he would have been able to break in without being questioned. Standing up, Hatter blocked Alice from sight as she pulled his shirt closer around herself and buttoned it. Jack stood in the doorway, two Suits at his side, looking every inch the arrogant King that he could be. Judging by the faint tick in his jaw, Jack was also a very angry monarch. Hatter, unfazed by the cold anger on his friend's face, shrugged as he impatiently waved him into the flat.

"Was wonderin' when you'd show up," Hatter commented, leaning against the footboard of the bed and crossing his legs casually. Jack sniffed, irritated by Hatter's usual lack of respect, and waved his men back to the door before he continued into the flat. He eyed Hatter's rather battered form before glancing at Alice, taking in her pale, tear-streaked face.

"Are you all right, Alice?" he asked. She nodded, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. Hatter's head turned toward her, and with a meaningful cough he gave her a reproachful look.

"Oi, you ain't supposed to move. Sit and stay there," he ordered firmly. Before she could argue with his demand, Alice felt pins and needles racing up her legs as she tried to move. Her argument died much to her annoyance, as she realized he was right. With a soft and childish grumble, she simply sat there with the blanket across her legs, staring up at the two men. Jack had resumed glaring at Hatter, who merely folded his arms across his bare chest while staring at him. Despite their height difference, Hatter showed no signs of being awed by the King.

"Why is it that when immediate reports came to me that the Looking Glass had been destroyed, I immediately thought of you, Hatter?" he demanded. Hatter rolled his eyes to the ceiling as if he were thinking it over.

"Can't say why, Jackie boy. We were there under your 'agreement'," Hatter responded after he tilted his head back down.

"I have four dead Technicians, a building in ruins, and one of the _only_ conduits of travel to the Other World obliterated. Surly, you can understand my anger at this," Jack responded in too soft a voice. Hatter met his eyes, and beside him, Alice swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. Hatter heard her, glancing over at her before he turned a pair of cold dark eyes to the King. He was furious at Jack's apparent insensitivity. He unfolded his arms, his right hand clenching into a fist.

It didn't matter that he and Jack were on friendly terms at times. He still had his moments when he'd like nothing more than to give the King a few choice bruises on that pretty face of his.

"You're forgettin', 'Majesty', that we also just lost Alice's mother and our friend. Unless, of course, your men found signs of them in the rubble?" Hatter snapped. Jack jerked, as if Hatter had hit him, and his eyes went to Alice, instantly contrite.

"She had already come through? Your mother?" Jack said, stunned. Hatter frowned, his anger forgotten, and he looked over at Alice as well. She was staring at Jack, a mixture of anger and grief shining from her eyes.

"You didn't realize that?" she demanded, her voice holding a note of cold anger that both men recognized. Jack had the decency to look ashamed, and shook his head regretfully.

"All of the records and footage were destroyed by the time the sprinklers were turned off. The entire building block is under lockdown." Jack sighed. "I only remembered today that Alice's mother was coming through. I just assumed..."

He suddenly looked at Hatter as if a thought had struck him. "Why in Wonderland did you leave the scene then?"

Hatter turned his head to the side and held up his hands as though he were being frisked by the police. Both Jack and Alice noticed how badly some of his wounds were. There was one particular deep gash on his lower arm looked fairly angry in color. "I didn't want Alice being drugged at the Hospital. They wouldn't understand grief if it bit them in their medical texts."

Jack had to agree with the logic in Hatter's reasoning. Wonderlanders still didn't show strong emotions very often, and even he and Hatter kept theirs under tight rein despite how strongly they felt these days. It was still a source of fascination for Wonderlanders, the concept of strong emotion. Alice was the only actual Oyster who still resided in Wonderland by choice, and if faced with the loss of a parent, Alice would most likely plunge into a grief that no doctor would know how to treat. They simply would have made the situation worse.

"While I understand the whys," Jack admitted after a moment, "you have to understand that leaving the site of the explosion has just sent a world of speculation up into the gossip mill. Not to mention the implication of it. My advisors say I should put you both on house arrest while the investigation is ongoing."

"What?" Hatter stepped toward him, outrage very clear on his face. Considering how he tended to bristle at authority, it wasn't surprising how he reacted to the idea of being interrogated like the criminal he had once been. Jack refused to step away. Staring squarely back at him, he pretended not to notice how Hatter fists were clenched at his sides.

"You were both seen entering the Looking Glass Institute, Hatter, and you were seen escaping it after an explosion. By four of my own men. _Without_ waiting for any help, I might add. Think about how this looks."

"That is the most, _daft_ thing I've ever heard you say, and I have heard you say some pretty stupid things. Used to think you'd gotten over it, but clearly I was wrong. You are still an idiot, Jack," Hatter growled at him. Jack opened his mouth, ready to argue that he was just being sensible. Alice, who had been silent, grabbed Hatter's hand when she saw it lift a bit.

"Stop it, both of you. This isn't helping any of us, and my Mom is still out there, somewhere in a place she knows nothing about. You two sit here and argue politics and debate as to what is right and wrong while my mom is likely terrified! She is alone in a world full of danger! Her only way home is now gone, and I am ready to slap both of you for acting like two dogs in a fight," she snapped, her grip hard enough to hurt Hatter's hand. Understanding her unspoken warning to him, Hatter backed down while Jack shook his head in regret. He wasn't as eager to pick a fight with Hatter as he put across.

"I'll put my best men on it, Alice. We'll find your mother if I have to go and search for her myself. But as to the accusations..." Jack broke off. He raked his hand through his hair. Hatter read his body language, and immediately his temper flared. Impatience was making it easier for him to ignore the potential disaster that punching the King could cause him.

"You're still going to let them implicate us and keep us here? Waiting for your men to hopefully catch whoever it was that did this?" Alice finished for him, getting it in before Hatter could. She could feel his anger building. Though she had more right to be upset, she was struggling to be calm because Hatter angry would not help any of them. "Damn it, Jack. This is my mom and you know us! You know better than to do this!"

"Alice is right, Jack," Amelia's voice made them all look back to the door. She was standing in the doorway, holding her son in her arms as she looked at them all. She was dressed warmly compared to her usual haute couture clothing, and she looked bitterly amused. "You are making this worse by pretending to accuse them. You know that Hatter wouldn't do anything so stupid, and Alice has no motivation."

"I am going by what looks right Amelia. It makes sense. Leastwise, it will to the populace," Jack answered, not liking being questioned. She rolled her eyes as she walked toward them. She was rocking her son gently in her arms to keep him quiet.

"You, love, are the King of Wonderland, and I highly doubt you'd let speculation rule your judgment. These are your friends, remember? Friends that you know very well saved your ass and our kingdom," she reprimanded. He sighed, not wanting to give in but, but knew her words spoke truth in volumes. Amelia came to his side, while lifting Will up to her shoulder to pat his back. She smiled warmly at Alice before she eyed Hatter with a grin. "Nice to see _you_ again, Hatter."

Her eyes flicked up and down his body, and he actually blushed, before snatching his discarded shirt from the chair and pulling it on. Hatter recovered quickly though and with his usual cockiness, he left his shirt open and messy. Jack ground his teeth in annoyance, know that Amelia was doing this deliberately. She was trying to sway his resolve by flirting with Hatter. Nevermind that the young man had no eyes for the Queen nor her for him normally. She could still work through his jealousy over her.

Unaffected, Alice rolled her eyes, knowing that the Queen was harmless when it came to her boyfriend.

"Why are you here?" she asked, skipping the usual Wonderlander's word-games, and getting straight to the point. If she didn't get to the heart of the matter, it would likely be hours before any of them stopped bantering long enough to think of anything useful to do. Determined not to notice Amelia's sudden pitying look, Alice glanced at her godson, and noticed that he almost seemed to be shimmering. As if the muted light in Hatter's flat was reflecting off of him. She frowned and tried to see his face, but it was hidden against Amelia's neck.

Amelia balanced her son in her arms and sighed, giving Alice another sympathetic look. She hadn't yet noticed how Alice was staring at Will.

"I had heard what happened, and it is my duty to make an appearance at the Institute to talk to anyone who was injured nearby from the explosion. I also heard you two were involved, and wanted to make sure you were okay and not, " she shot a terse look to her husband, "being accused."

"For this, you brought our son?" Jack asked, clearly annoyed that she was interfering. "Especially after last night."

Hatter frowned, confused by the subject change. "Last night?"

"Simple break-in at the Palace. A few old artifacts were stolen but nothing valuable; just a painting and gold candelabra. The thief was caught outside, a street urchin who was doing it for kicks. Now, as to why I brought our son, the Nanny for Will has come down with a ferocious migraine, and naturally, I elected to care for him," Amelia answered. Alice cleared her throat, her head cocked on the side. Distracted, Amelia looked over at Alice, and noticed that the smaller woman was frowning. Alice then leaned forward, still staring at the child. Amelia shifted her son in her arms and asked, "Are you all right?"

"This is Will?" Alice asked. Hearing disbelief in Alice's voice, Amelia glanced at Hatter with concern.

"Did she hit her head very hard?"

Hatter shrugged. "Yeah but..."

Alice tugged on his hand before trying to stand on her shaky legs. She let him wrap his arm around her waist for support. He looked at her in confusion. "Hatter, just look at him please. I'm not crazy." Frowning, her boyfriend did as he was told.

Hatter was aware that he likely looked like an idiot staring at his godson like this, but he had heard the tone in Alice's voice. She wouldn't be asking him to look if there was nothing wrong. Then, as he turned his head to glance at her, he caught sight of something flashing. Keeping his eye on the infant, Hatter watched as something shimmered all over the child's tiny body. It was a fast glimmer, something that, unless it was being looked for, would likely have been missed. Frowning again, Hatter looked back at Alice. She shook her head, not having any explanation for him.

"What? Is something wrong?" Jack demanded, catching their unspoken exchange. He wasn't sure what was going on, but it was clear they were thinking the same thing.

"Just somethin' looks off, if you catch my drift," Hatter explained. Letting go of his hand, Alice reached out to Amelia.

"Can I hold him?" she asked politely, but before Amelia could respond Alice had plucked the baby away, holding him gingerly. Using one hand, she pulled the blanket away from his tiny face, and looked him over. She studied him as the shimmer seemed to travel up and down. It was easier to see, now that she knew what she was looking for. The boy looked back at her sleepily, his blue eyes showing no recognition. Alice sat back down on the bed when her legs started to shake from standing too long.

Amelia was tense, not liking the look on Alice's face. She glanced at Hatter. "Are you rubbing off on her, Hatter?"

He looked back at Amelia before shrugging, not committing to an answer. He really had no answer for her about that train of thought.

Setting Will on her lap, Alice gingerly touched his smooth cheek. Though Jack and Amelia looked equally worried that Alice was losing it, Hatter focused on what she was doing. That faint glow she carried, that intensified by her every emotion, suddenly seemed to shimmer down her arm and onto the child. The gryphon mark on her neck glowed as well, as if her concern had brought it to life. The shimmer that he had glimpsed before on Will's body suddenly flared a brilliant white, causing all of them to close their eyes at the brightness of it. Then, they heard a baby cry out as if in pain.

The cry quickly turned into a long angry squeal, and Alice opened to her eyes to see that she was no longer cradling baby Will. Instead, lying with its legs up in the air was a piglet, squealing furiously and squirming against her hands. It even turned its head, biting at her fingers while trying hard to turn around. Alice stared dumbfounded at the animal and Amelia cried out as if she had been struck. It was Hatter who finally moved, grabbing the tiny beast, and setting it on the floor before it could bite Alice again. It raced out the door past the Suits to the grass that carpeted the halls. They could hear it squealing frantically as if it were searching for its own mother.

"My baby was turned into a pig?" Amelia cried in agony. Jack stirred himself from his shock in time to comfort his wife. He put his arms around her as she launched herself into his chest.

"I don't think that was him. That would take magic I've never seen before," Jack concluded, holding her tightly. Hatter looked perplexed while he listened to the pig squeal outside in the hall. Knowing he'd be little help, Jack stared at the still stupefied Alice.

"How did you do that?" he demanded, and they all looked at her. Alice shook her head, confused by it herself.

"I don't know. Really I don't. It's just that I saw that shimmer, and thought I saw… something. Something that I hadn't seen since…well since we were in the Taiga a year ago," she admitted slowly, trying to solve it in her own mind and having no luck.

Jack glared at her, but there was no heat in his eyes. "How did we miss it then?" he argued aloud. Hatter looked over at him.

"Cause you wouldn't be lookin' for anything wrong. It was a matter of chance, Alice seein' it...least I'm guessing it was." He flexed his right hand, and then winced as if the action had bothered the wound on his arm. "If it was any sort of old magic, you wouldn't have known it. I was raised with that sort of thing and Alice is...well...she's Alice."

His words held no comfort, and it was clear that he was as confused as the rest of them were. Unable to help herself, Amelia was shaking. "That means my son...my son is gone then."

"Kidnapped," Jack said, hiding behind cold logic to mask his urge to grieve with her. Only this morning he had thought things were so peaceful. Now, in the short span of a few hours, everything was going under the Lake. He let her go, and spun on his heel, wanting nothing more than to smash something. "Damn it all!"

Reaching out, Alice tried to touch Amelia in comfort, but the Queen yanked away, staring at her husband. Suddenly, her face became as mask-like as his, and Alice could see that they had both quickly forgotten her and Hatter. Neither of them even gave them a second look. Alice glanced over at Hatter, noticing that he was staring at them as well.

"We must send out search parties immediately," Amelia ordered, an odd mixture of royalty and mother.

"I will go myself. Suits!" Jack yelled. When the men appeared he was already striding to the door. "Call up every available recon unit, and get them out there immediately. I want a briefing in less than an hour, understand?"

"Sir?" One of the Aces looked terrified by his King. "Anything else?"

"I want an immediate lock-down of Wonderland City. No one goes in or out until my son is found."

"Jack," Alice started, but he was already deep into discussion with one of his Aces. He strode toward the door to the flat; her and Hatter all but gone in his mind. Amelia immediately walked past them to join her husband, and Hatter watched as it became more and more apparent that the problem of Alice's mother had been forgotten. A Royal gone missing was likely something that would explode the entire City into activity. Combined with the Looking Glass being destroyed, this was turning into disaster that even Hatter couldn't see ending well.

"But what about..." Alice started, but Jack and the Suits were gone, taking Amelia with them. The definitive slam of the door had cut off Alice's plea. "...my mom and Charlie?"

"Alice," Hatter said. She turned to find him looking remarkably serious. His eyes searched her face for a moment before he sighed. "A Royal was just kidnapped. Not only that, but the heir to the Heart Rule. Jack won't be splitting up his forces or resources to find your mom. I'm sorry but...logic here means that the Royal gets found first. It can't be any other way for Jack. It's his son and his heir."

"So I'm just supposed to sit back and let my mom and Charlie disappear? You said so yourself: whoever took her likely wanted her because she's an 'Oyster'," Alice snapped, her emotions quickly become hysterical. "So I should let them do whatever they want? What if they try to drain her, Hatter? Without Jack's resources, without his men..."

The despair in her expression was almost overwhelmed by the rage in her voice. Hatter's jaw clenched out of reflex, and took a breath. "I said Jack's resources, Alice," Hatter answered, not letting her anger phase him. "Not mine."

She stared at him, momentarily silenced.

"We'll find your mom, but we don't have the benefit of Royal Backing, that's all. Instead of goin' the all legal route, we'll just be makin' it borderline illegal. I doubt they'll have gotten far, and I can get the information we need. It'll be tricky though so we need to stay focused, okay?" he explained calmly, watching her warily. "I need my Alice back…you know the one who can rush into danger along side me, and still be calm about it." He paused before he continued, deciding on how to continue by the look in her eyes. All the same, he knew that if the truth was the best way to go now. "I love you, Alice, but if you're hysterical I ain't up for bringin' you with me. I'll leave you here while I find her. Just warnin' ye."

He was scolding her gently, sounding more like an elder brother than her lover, but Alice knew he was trying to get through to her. There was also a lot of logic in his words, that even she couldn't argue with. Of all the people in Wonderland, he _**was**_ the best choice. He was certainly the most reliable. He knew Wonderland's ins and outs, and how to survive them. Alice had no intention of letting him go without her though. Even if the idea of losing her mother still terrified her, Alice was determined not to let it show. She bit into her lower lip, took a deep, cleansing breath and finally nodded her head in agreement.

"Okay, so where do we start?" she asked as he leaned over to search for something under the bed. Perplexed, she could hear him rummaging. He finally stood back up Alice could see that he was holding a small bottle of blue liquid and a tiny spoon.

He grinned at her. "You aren't startin' yet, Alice. Look at you, you're not steady on your feet, and won't be till you get some rest. I need you to try to get some sleep." He waved her quiet when she went to protest, jabbing the spoon in the air as if to drive the point home. "You're no good to me if you are tired. I need to go have a chat with some sources. Whoever took your mom won't be able to get too far without being seen. I'll get some facts straight, and then when I come back I'll let you know every detail. You need to rest up. Somethin' tells me we'll be travellin' again."

As if certain she would agree with him, Hatter poured out a tiny bit of fluid onto the spoon. Eyeing him as if he held something poisonous, Alice promptly shut her mouth like a child who was being served medicine by her father. She was acting childishly, and she knew it, but she had no intention of letting him drug her just so he could leave her there. Even if she was tired, she was certain that she'd be fine. Well, mostly certain because the ache in her head was warning her about this. Still, in her mind, Alice needed to go with him, and she wasn't about to be stopped by him nor by her slight injuries. At his annoyed look, she arched a brow, and retaliated by giving him a defiant glare.

Hatter's eyes narrowed, reading her mind easily. Without pause, he lifted the spoon to his own lips, popping it into his mouth and slurping the thick liquid clean off. Alice frowned as she watched, confused as to why he'd be taking it himself. Hatter suddenly grabbed her, using her shock to his advantage as he covered her lips with his, and forced her mouth open. The thick liquid passed from his mouth to hers, and Alice squeaked in surprise. The harsh press of lips transformed into a kiss while Hatter reached up to rub her throat gently. The action forced her to swallow in reflex when the liquid almost caused her to gag.

Alice pulled back and stared at Hatter stupidly, shocked by what he had done. He reached over and picked up the glass from the night-stand, sipping from it, and swishing the liquid in his mouth before spitting it back out in the trash-can. He was obviously not taking the chance that he'd swallow any of it.

After a moment, Alice felt a sleepiness overwhelm her. The languid warmth flooding her insides let her know exactly what he had just done to her.

"You drugged me," she slurred in shock, and Hatter nodded without a hint of apology in his face.

"Yep."

"You...drugged...me," Alice repeated. She fell forward into him and Hatter sighed, smoothing her hair back from her face with his free hand.

"I can't have you followin' me to the Underground, Alice. Not this time, and not to where I'm goin'. It's too dangerous, and I've got people to see that won't like seein' you at all. I swear I'll have answers for you," he whispered to her, knowing she barely heard him. She was already deeply breathing in and out as he pushed her back onto the bed. He stared down at her for a moment, caressing the side of her face as she fell into a deep, healing sleep. Covering her with a blanket, Hatter sighed, and set the jar on the bedside table. He was used to taking that drug but Alice wasn't. She would likely sleep deeply until he came back.

Hatter fully intended on having answers for her by the time she woke up.


	5. Musings in a Great Library

Even after the fall of the Queen of Hearts, the Great Library had remained secluded from the rest of Wonderland City. That had not been the choice of Jack, who had moved a vast array of the books to a new building for all of the citizens. Despite the emptying of the higher levels, the lowest floors of the old Library still remained a part of the Underground. The Great Library itself still held a variety of the very old books that were just too delicate to move. Jack had reluctantly left much of the building alone, and subsequently that left it in the hands of the remaining remnants of the Resistance. Thanks to Dodo's insistence and influence, old rebels were still living within the depths of the Library. It had remained a place where the Underground criminals could come and go without ever being caught.

Unfortunately, due to Jack's abrupt refusal of the Resistance's help during the White Queen's coup, things had substantially grown worse between the former Resistance Leader and the King. Hatter highly doubted that Jack was pleased with Dodo disobeying his orders to disband the Resistance. Dodo himself never ventured far from the Great Library. His insubordinates were ever present on the streets, but he never appeared during the coronations or weddings, despite Jack's frequent invitations. Dodo's animosity was quite mutual though, for Jack had gradually begun to reciprocate resentment towards the old Leader. It had become so apparent that lately it made Hatter wonder just what was going on between the two.

Despite Hatter's own problems with Dodo, he still loved delving back into the Underground, even if it was just the on the 'quieter' levels. Years of trading and illegal practices were hard to put off, and it was a bit of a test for him to be back here on the alert. Ready for action and all that.

He had already gone through enough of the sleazier areas, and though he'd deny it to Alice, it had been rather fun to see some of his old friends again.

Hatter banged on a grey metal door, one that almost blended in with the rest of the ramshackle building. Trying to remain rather invisible, he leaned in and, keeping one hand braced on the iron bar that supported the overhang, he listened carefully. The City itself had become rather peaceful in this area, but old habits were the hardest to kill. Thanks to a checkered past and the events from hours before, Hatter felt he still had to dodge the various police and Suits that were starting to search the many levels of Wonderland City.

The quiet around the building made him uneasy.

Looking over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't being followed, he could hear someone finally answering his summons. The scrape of metal on metal as the top slat of the door opened made a sound that caused Hatter to cringe. When the door finally clanged open, Hatter backed away just in time for a short-barrel shotgun to be jabbed under his jaw. Through the shadows of the slat he could just barely make out a pair of weary, sunken-in eyes. Despite the man's glowering expression, Hatter plastered on a charming smile.

"Duck, old mate, how're you?" he asked, as the muzzle was suddenly pressed tighter against his skin.

"What are _ **you**_ doin' here, Hatter?" Duck demanded.

"It's been a while, so all I could think of was how I just don't see any of you anymore?" Hatter cleared his throat and eyed Duck. "Can't I just visit old friends?"

The loud click of the gun being cocked made him swallow and purse his lips. Apparently, his smooth charm was well out of practice. Over a year ago he would have been able to charm his way out of this sort of situation. But then again, a year ago did seem like a totally different lifetime these days.

"Ten and three quarters of a second to explain just what you're playin' at, Hatter," Duck warned. Hatter winced as the old man jabbed the gun into his neck again to give extra meaning to the threat.

"I need to see Dodo. Or someone of equal standin'," Hatter answered honestly, and Duck's eyes squinted.

"Why? Are you planning something?" Duck questioned. Without waiting for Hatter to answer he pulled the gun back a bit. "Never mind. Won't matter anyway, seeing as how Dodo won't want to see the likes of you."

"That's a right bit of nonsense. He loves me," Hatter lied sarcastically. The old man's harsh bark of a laugh and leveled eyes emphasized his response.

"Like he loves bein' dipped in hot oil, I'm sure. Get lost Hatter."

"Right, fine." Hatter turned on his heel as if to leave, and slowly fished out a small wrapped package from his jacket pocket. He made a show of unwrapping it, holding it up to the light, to reveal a tiny pork pie topped with cherries and red sauce. Having swiped it from a baker shop on his way to the North side of Wonderland, he was glad he hadn't given in to the temptation of eating it. The feel of Duck's intent eyes on the back of his head was practically burning him. Hatter heard the clank of the door opening, but he ignored it. Spinning the tiny pie in the palm of his hand, he murmured loud enough for spying ears to hear," Guess I'll just be goin'. Not sure what else I can do."

Suddenly the pie was grabbed out his hand. Hatter grinned like a Cheshire cat as he looked out at the landscape. Turning slowly back around Hatter found Duck folding his handkerchief over half of the tiny pastry, eyes glinting as he looked at Hatter. He still carried that half-starved look, making him all the more pathetic. It brought about twinge of sympathy from Hatter for the old coot. Sympathy was all but forgotten however, when he remembered that the old man had been about to blow his head off.

"Hungry then?" Hatter asked for lack of anything better to say. He watched as the older man delicately bit into the uncovered half of the pie. Since he rarely went hungry, Hatter did find it rather sad to see such hunger. The Resistance certainly shouldn't be suffering for money or food now, but one look at the old man in front of him told Hatter that that was clearly the case. Hatter cleared his throat impatiently.

Duck rolled his eyes, but caved nonetheless.

"All right, Hatter. I'll take you to see Dodo, but if he asks, you had half of the King's men behind you, that clear?" he demanded and Hatter grinned.

"Crystalline. Lead on, Duck."

* * *

The journey into the Library itself was different than it had been before. The bus was still there, an old relic of a thing that clanged and groaned as Hatter and Duck entered it. This time when Duck threw the switch it slammed down at a speed that made even Hatter's stomach jump. It was going ridiculously fast, but Duck was unbothered by it. He was pushing an array of buttons, and after a few minutes he pressed one that made the bus jerk to a stop, then launch forward. It was enough to send Hatter face first into the windshield of the bus and then back again. He was launched backwards and flew halfway down the bus hall before landing hard on his backside.

Duck, finding this absolutely hilarious, howled with coarse laughter that soon gave way to choking. He seemed so lost in his humor that he didn't notice Hatter's murderous glare. The younger man remained planted on the ground and watched as Duck began to push all of the buttons at once. Immediately the bus's brakes screeched as it came to a halt. The motion jerked the bus forward as it came to a stop, causing Hatter to be glad he had stayed sitting, less he further amuse Duck with another face-plant into the windshield. Slamming on the emergency brake, Duck cranked the doors open, gesturing for Hatter to get out and follow him. Knowing there was little chance of recovering his own balance, Hatter followed as best he could.

He had just passed Duck to get to the landing, when yet another shotgun was pressed into his face. _These moments of déjà vu are gettin' old fast,_ he thought to himself. Sighing, he rolled his eyes to the ceiling. Hatter waited until the muzzle of the gun was lowered before glaring into Owl's overly large eyes. Through the dimly lit room, he could barely make out her horn-rimmed glasses that now held a patch of tape in the middle. He could see her nose wrinkling in worry. She was one of the least intimidating people he knew, but when she carried a shotgun around in her usual careless manner, Hatter found himself on his best behavior. Her bad eyesight and even worse aim caused Hatter to covertly walk behind Duck, putting a barrier between himself and Owl's nervous trigger finger.

Owl sniffed and looked back at her husband. "What's he doin' here?" she demanded, her accent made thick by her irritation. Duck shrugged.

"Wants to see the boss. Saw no harm in it, love," he assured. Owl's eyes narrowed as she looked back at Hatter.

"Hands up Hatter. If that right hand moves so much as an inch I'll shoot you through," she warned. She jabbed the shotgun towards him and he resumed glaring at her.

"Nice to see you as well Owl. Still _Jumpy_ I see," Hatter's emphasis on jumpy wasn't lost on Owl.

"We don't see you for six months and suddenly you spring up the same day the King's son goes missin'," Owl snapped. "You don't think that looks a mite bit suspicious like?"

"Oh, so you heard about eh?" Hatter asked, edging around her so that his back was to the railing nearby. "And about the Lookin' Glass?"

Both of the elderly guards looked confused. "What about it?"

"So you don't know about it?" Hatter concluded, and Owl shrugged.

"We'd know if you told us," she pointed out.

 _Hook, line and sink'er_ , he thought with pleasure and Hatter grinned. "But that's tellin' and you know me. I'm a big one for keepin' secrets. 'sides, I'm sure you'll know in a few hours anyway. Once Jackie-boy gets it in his mind to release the official news that is," he explained and at their blank looks he sighed again. "The King."

"Ohhhhh," Duck drawled out, suddenly looking uncomfortable. She fidgeted for a moment and then jabbed at him again. "I don't like you comin' in here with secrets."

"Well that would be unfortunate, eh? 'Cause it does tend to be all I come with," Hatter answered, rather enjoying playing word games with them. Neither of them was particularly talented when it came to word games, but they were good enough listeners.

"How'd he get in?" Owl said, looking at Duck once more. Duck sighed and closed his eyes, for a moment looking as if he'd been caught with a hand in the cookie jar. Turning to his wife he devised a plan that involved putting as much of the blame on Hatter as possible.

"Well, he was rather insistent. He even threatened to bring back-up with him if I turned him away," he started, but was cut off when tiny woman suddenly pressed up tight against him. She leaned in until her nose was a fraction away from his mouth, sniffing indiscreetly.

"You smell of cherries you do!" she cried, eyes suddenly wide and accusing. "Not to mention the small bit of crust and pork you got there dangling in yer beard..."

Owl actually squeaked in realization.

"You got somethin' from him, didn't ya?" she accused with a pointed finger.

"Now, precious Owl, light of my dark life," Duck began, but was cut short as he howled in pain from the pointed heel embedded in his foot. Jumping back and forth on one foot he conceded, "He just offered it is all. I was hungry, luv! Hungry for something other than old gruel and porridge and you can't blame me for that. Hatter does tend to have the best things when he offers them as bribes."

"You didn't even save me any," Owl whined causing Duck to wince. So that was what she was actually angry about.

"Well, you had that fruit bowl last time he was here, and you didn't share then," he pointed out tersely. Owl groaned, resting her shotgun on her shoulder.

"You would bring that up, wouldn't you? Dodo didn't want us takin' his bribes, you know. Said if we did it one more time he'd kick us out to the streets. Said we was a disgrace to the noble Caucus we served. Dodo is quite serious about these things you know! He doesn't want ta see Hatter," Owl's voice rose on those last words and Duck had the good sense to look thoroughly scolded by his tiny wife. "Besides," she whispered, so Hatter wouldn't overhear, "After that weirdness a year ago, he's even ordered us to try to shoot Hatter should he try to slip 'round our guard."

"All right, all right," he sighed, desperate to soothe her. He had lived with her long enough to know that if he didn't soothe her ruffled feathers now that there'd be no living with her for the next week. "You heard her, Hatter. Off you go. I'll take you back to the surface. Dodo doesn't want to see you and we..."

He had turned a full circle before he realized that he and Owl were alone in the tiny foyer. Hatter had taken advantage of their bickering to slip away. Duck groaned in dismay, He really was in for it this time. He heard Owl chattering nonsense behind him. Electing to ignore her, he began to trudge down the hallway leading to the innards of the Library.

* * *

Hatter ventured deeper than he had before, narrowly dodging the few guards that still remained. After sneaking away from the bickering harpies, he wasted no time trying to find Dodo. There was little chance that the ancient watchdogs would take him to Dodo anyway. They'd likely get lost if they tried. Hatter should have been worried about squaring off with the renegade Librarian, but the thought of going back to Alice with little information was not an option. He just had to figure out where the old overly analytical blowhole was hoarding him-self. Judging by the immensity of the building, it would take him a while

As he searched, he took in the cold hallways with the wariness of a trapped cat. The dim light made random piles of books seem far more massive than they truly were. The lowest level of the Library had a dank, musty smell; the odor of rotted book binding and burned paper just as strong. Wrinkling his nose, he pushed the brim of his Homburg up and squinted through the shadows. The shelves were set at all angles and for a brief moment, he was certain that he was just wandering around a warren of books.

It surprised him, actually. The Library, for all of its knowledge, was one of the most poorly catalogued venues Hatter knew. Its disorganization was simply due to the fact that every day more and more books were found within its depths. Wonderlanders, even during the tyrannical reign of the Queen of Hearts, loved their books. It didn't matter that half of these books should have been discarded years ago. It was knowledge, and knowledge was the only power they had. Not only that, but they helped Dodo to create a city of books inside the building, making the innards of the Library dizzyingly confusing. All the better to try to trap intruders.

Hatter, musing over his own reservations about the Library, almost missed the change in the wall. Only after tripping over a book and catching himself on a shelf, did he see the beige door. It had been disguised by the books lining. The frame curved into a concave shape making it somewhat distinguishable. _Clever_ , Hatter thought with a grin as he moved forward and carefully opened the door. Obviously, Dodo was just as paranoid as he had been a year ago.

He slipped deeper into the room, barely able to see through the darkness of the room. He didn't like going into places blind, but the reality of the situation left him no choice. The darkness gave way slowly, revealing a dimly lit room. He moved forward quickly, relieved to be out of the darkness.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang, causing Hatter to jump back just as the wood panel near him exploded. A bullet had ripped through, just barely missing his head. Oddly enough, Hatter thought that maybe… _just maybe_ he had been deliberately missed. This gave him the confidence he needed to continue walking in. Still eyeing the destroyed panel, Hatter warily continued walking into the crowded study. It was similar to Dodo's old study; there were his piles of books and a mural on the wall with a few plants here and there growing from the floor. It was still refined in appearance, but the mess had grown.

Squinting at one of the books on the floor, Hatter read that it was a history title. "The First Five Hundred Years Of Rule". Hatter knew his history; after all a determined father and an insane grandfather had drilled it into him. Yet, for all his learning, he didn't recognize the title at all. It was certainly a bizarre choice for a book of casual reading.

Distracted too much by the book, Hatter ran directly into the hard muzzle of a pistol. It bit into his chest, and Hatter froze. Lifting his eyes he saw Dodo staring back at him. The stout man sneered at him in open contempt.

"I was able to sneak up on you, Hatter. I certainly taught you better than that. You must be getting rusty," Dodo commented. Hatter gave the older man a respectful nod; more because of the gun he held than because of any real fear.

"Was distracted by your choice of reading material," Hatter explained. "How're you, Dodo?"

"You know, there was a time when you called me sir. When you had a modicum of respect," Dodo said, ignoring Hatter's attempt to be polite. The younger man rolled his eyes.

"Right. That was only 'cause you threatened to beat me as a boy. Minute I grew, that threat was less...intimidatin'," Hatter answered, easily falling back into their banter.

"One would think you'd act less like a base-born, boy. Considering whom your family tried to raise you to be. There is _**some**_ good old blood in you," Dodo grumbled irritably. "What do you want? And before you deny it, let me remind you of the fact that you always come here asking for favors, so don't play dumb." Dodo lowered the pistol and turned around, limping over to his desk and chair.

"Somethin' wrong with your leg?" Hatter asked as he followed him.

"It hasn't been the same for a while now. Please don't pretend to be concerned, Hatter. We both know you want something, and the only reason I haven't set my men on you is because I'm curious enough to know what it is you want," Dodo answered as he lowered himself into a chair. He put his hands on the desk, folding them as he did so. He almost looked sincere as he stared up at Hatter. But, staring back at him, Hatter could tell that he was faking it.

"The Looking Glass was destroyed." A _bit blunt, but to the point is more important now,_ Hatter thought.

"Was it now?" Dodo blinked slowly, as though trying to take it in all at once.

"Obliterated really. Right around the same time that Jack's kid was kidnapped," Hatter continued.

"And this concerns you… how?" Dodo leaned back in his chair and eyed Hatter as though bored. "You're living the legal life now, Hatter. You, and that Oyster of yours, are all as happy as pigs wallowing in cake. What do you care if the Looking Glass was destroyed?"

"Three reasons really," Hatter said, ignoring the insult. Stepping closer to the desk, he picked up a glass paperweight and spun it absentmindedly. "First is, you and I both know that if somethin' could happen to such a major source of magic, it will ultimately affect our world."

Dodo actually looked uncomfortable now. "So you did pay attention to some of my lessons."

"Never was one big on philosophy but yeah, I listened." Hatter stared at the desk, but his actual attention never wavered from the old Resistance Leader.

"And your other reasons?" Dodo asked.

"Second reason is Charlie, the White Knight, and third is Carol Hamilton, Alice's mum. She was coming through the Looking Glass just as someone destroyed it."

"Terrible luck that is." Dodo merely arched a brow when Hatter looked at him. "Sadly, I am not in the mind to care for the loss of an Oyster and an insane Knight. It would just not be in me. The Looking Glass however... well, now that is devastating." Looking over at Hatter, he snorted, "Why have you really come here, Hatter? One would think you'd be following the Underground Channels."

"You and I both know that you're the best one to come to. And before **you** deny it, remember that you can't tell me you don't have sources that don't know what is going on. You and your crew are far more aware of the hijinks going on in Wonderland, so enlighten _**me**_ for a change," Hatter rebounded but Dodo gave him a short laugh, refusing to be intimidated by him.

"I hardly care to divulge that information to you of all people, Hatter." Dodo had a look of superiority on his face that Hatter found hard to stomach. "You have nothing to bargain or frighten me with to obtain my information, and your wits are clearly addled."

" _ **This**_ is all time you could spend telling me something I need to know," Hatter grumbled, "rather than stone-walling like damn gargoyle."

"You do have to face the truth, Hatter," Dodo sneered, "Since you've paired up with your Oyster you've nothing to threaten me with. You've gone soft, and your mind is likely no more than mush too."

Hatter said nothing, knowing that he was being baited and not about to react over insults to himself. He was used to Dodo's insults after many years of hearing them.

"What would it take for her to leave you, eh...to know exactly what it was that you did for the Resistance?" Dodo paused in his sinister speech. His eyes went over Hatter slyly before continuing, "She is a human after all, and we all know their limited uses…"

He leered at Hatter, not seeing the blank look coming into his dark eyes. "What will happen when you tire of her, Hatter? Perhaps she can find other work here doing the only thing she is likely good for."

The baiting worked too well, for Hatter reached across the desk with surprising speed and grabbed the back of Dodo's head. Shoving hard with his right hand, he slammed Dodo's head into the desk. The bang that followed was loud in the enclosed study, and Hatter repeated it once more for effect. Dodo shouted out a pained curse, calling for his men in the next breath.

Of all his men, it was Duck and Owl who clambered in. They were surprised to see their boss face first on the desk. Hatter was standing beside him, one hand on the base of his neck with his right one raised. Duck swallowed and eyed Dodo.

"Boss?"

"We're just havin' a conversation," Hatter explained, the way some people may say they were discussing the weather. "Ain't that right, Dodo?"

He punctuated his explanation with a good squeeze of his hand on the back of Dodo's neck. Dodo scoffed as best as he could.

"I didn't realize you were so touchy over a common Oyster girl, Hatter. I thought you would have already left her, or her you," Dodo tried and Hatter sighed in dismay. Without much warning, he lifted Dodo's head and slammed it back into the desk. The violent action caused Owl to squeak in fear, but Hatter's bland expression remained the same.

Neither Duck nor Owl had ever seen him like this before, and it was terrifying for them. Dodo groaned again, his forehead flaming red and his nose bloody from the impact. His eyes rolled to the side and he twitched in pain. Hatter leaned over and peered down at him from under the brim of his hat.

"You were sayin'?" he asked cheerfully. The perkiness in his voice warned Dodo how ready he was to slam his head back into the old wood desk.

"Hatter and I were merely exchanging ideas, Duck. You and Owl go post guard outside the door. I will be fine," Dodo gave in, his voice hoarse and muffled against the desk. Owl shot her husband a nervous look but Hatter waved them on, not releasing his grip on Dodo until the door was shut behind them. Glancing back down at Dodo, who was laying still, Hatter rolled his eyes and moved again. He made sure to grab Dodo's pistol from the desk as he went to the other side of it.

He wasn't going to chance Dodo shooting him in retaliation.

"Ye know, things are always a mite easier when you don't go to insultin' my girl or meself." Hatter unloaded the gun, tossing it to one side, the bullets scattering as he did so. "So how about we stay on track, eh?"

Dodo picked his head up off the desk and glared at Hatter, hating him very clearly. Hatter ignored the scathing look, and began to fix the cuffs of his jacket meticulously.

"Do you never wonder, Hatter, why everything has been quiet for a year?" Dodo asked, rubbing at his sore jaw. He was watching the younger man carefully as Hatter paced the old carpet. Hatter almost seemed like he was coiling in his own energy, the way a spring would after being bunched up, and the look of it made Dodo uneasy.

"Do you know something, or are you just going to be playin' games?" he demanded and Dodo shrugged.

"Back in the day, it was fairly common for more than just the Resistance to be in play especially when it came to plots of action," Dodo clicked his fingernails. and then leaned back in his seat. "The Quadrille, for example."

Hatter stopped his pacing and looked at him, "They operated out of the South, eradicating the Queen's influence there."

"Indeed," Dodo commented, and then tipped his head to the side. "They didn't quite like you, as I recall. Specific members in particular"

Hatter snorted, not bothering to answer and causing Dodo to grin.

"I do know they had their own sets of plans. Mostly they operated on the theory that if they were able to control the Looking Glass, they could install a government and ruler that they could control. When that plan failed, a new one formed. Destroy the current Looking Glass, and create a new one…one to their liking that is. No matter the cost."

That caught Hatter's attention, and he stared at Dodo incredulously. "That's mad thinkin'. It took hundreds of Oysters to create the Stone of Wonderland, to control the Looking Glass. All the other entries to the Other World are long dead or destroyed."

"I am quite certain that their line of thinking was 'where is the harm in this, it is only one Oyster.'"

"I want to know where they're going and what they look like," Hatter demanded.

Dodo arched a brow, giving a short laugh at the look on Hatter's face. Still, he reached over and picked up a pad of paper, quickly scrawling out a source for Hatter. The scrawl quickly turned into a drawing and as Hatter watched, Dodo seemed to absorb himself in the picture. It was rather remarkable how quickly it transformed into an expert line drawing that would cause most artists to gape in wonder. By the time he slid it across the desk, a sneer had returned back on his face.

"Still with your gall, eh Hatter? You demand, you push, yet never once have you given the Resistance the respect it deserves," he commented. "And after all it has done for you."

"Annnnnnnnd," Hatter drawled, "here we go. Never mind that if it weren't for my friends and I, you would still be lurking around the Great Library… Or hiding out in the Tunnels. 'Course, that's nothin' in the pot, eh?"

Dodo went a shade of red at that, but Hatter merely scoffed at him.

"If I find out you had even a slight bit of involvement in this, Dodo, I'll likely forget all about this left hand being the one I should use when I hit you," Hatter threatened as he headed to the door. The way he jerked it open made Duck and Owl both back up hurriedly. They were terrified that he might have seen them eavesdropping through the key hole. He was almost out the door when Dodo cleared his throat.

"You really want to head South, likely with that Oyster in tow?" Dodo questioned. "You haven't been there in years. Likely you'll run into some old friends, eh?"

Hatter turned on his heel.

"The Quadrille is the best I can do by giving you information, but one never knows what you may find. You won't have the King's good graces to protect your Oyster from harm. Much good it would do; they do not bow to the whims of him as it is anyway," Dodo commented. Hatter gave him a cheeky grin.

"I highly doubt Alice needs Jack's full protection. But your concern is touching," Hatter answered, and then without preamble, he sauntered back to the hall. When he was gone from view Dodo snapped his fingers at them both Duck and Owl.

"You two! I want him followed. Who do we know in the South?" he demanded, and Owl pursed her lips, wracking her brain. She didn't like the South herself, all landed gentry giving themselves airs, but there had to be someone they knew.

"We got a few insiders I think. The Pigeon and the Snake maybe…but not together. Snake nearly killed Pige last time. Neither is reliable, and I don't know where their loyalties really lie, boss. Snake worked with all four groups at one time and we all know how that ends up," she explained and Dodo sniffed.

"Send Snake to keep watch with the remaining militia. They can take them in the South Forests… if they get that far."

* * *

Hatter had been gone for well over ten hours. Traveling over Wonderland City by foot was no easy feat. It was dark by the time Hatter returned, and he was more than just a little exhausted. The Tea Shop was silent, the lack of customers making it seem like nothing more than an empty derelict building. The entire building had been locked down earlier, and it took some creativeness on Hatter's part to slip past the guards that Jack had posted on the front porch. Clearly, the King was going to follow through with his orders to keep them under house arrest.

It was that sort of thing that made Hatter wish he hadn't been on such friendly terms with Jack Heart.

He went in the side route, climbing the ladder and slipping in through the hallway window. The flat door was shut, and he tested the knob, finding it still locked. Breathing a sigh of relief, he quickly unlocked the door, and entered the flat. There was a sound of water draining from the tub in the corner, and on the stove a tea kettle was whistling impatiently. It was the sort of domestic scene Hatter had become accustomed to, but he hardly knew what to expect this time around. Alice was going to be livid with him; no matter how he explained drugging her, she was going to be angry.

He heard a slam near the closet before Alice appeared, wrapped in a bathrobe and holding a fresh change of clothes. She had braided her hair back away from her face, and there was a dampness about her that let him know she had only just gotten out of the bath. Hatter, determined to divert her anger, plastered a winning grin on his face, and locked the door behind him.

"I'm back," he said unnecessarily. Alice looked him up and down, and then sniffed.

"So you are," she answered, going into the kitchenette and promptly snapping the stove off. Hatter sighed, tossing his jacket onto the long table before walking toward her.

"Found some stuff out. Dodo wasn't terribly helpful, but he gave me a few clues. Went down to the wharf - which had that wonderful garbage smell I might add- and I talked to Mouse. Found out that there were about ten people he'd never seen before going in and out of the waterways from the South. Two nights ago, four of them didn't come back."

Alice was silent, acting as if pouring the hot water over the tea bags was a difficult task. She hadn't turned around yet, and it was making him nervous.

"I'm thinking it was the Quadrille."

Alice sniffed. "Oh? Who're they?"

"They were a tentacle part of the Resistance at one point. They also had more than a few people in the White Rabbit. Few years ago, when things got bad, Dodo and their leader had a few arguments. The Quadrille seemed more willing to destroy other lives than Dodo was. Went into the South to try to destroy the Queen of Hearts' influence there," Hatter continued, huffing when Alice remained silent. She was stirring the tea leaves in the pot meticulously. "Luv, could you please look at me?"

Alice turned so quickly that he actually had to step back in surprise. Her eyes were like two blue icicles, and without much warning, she slapped him hard on the chest. He grunted, having to step back into the counter at the impact, and Hatter stared at her. Alice gave him another solid whack to the chest and glared at him.

"If you ever, _**ever**_ do that to me again, I will personally make certain you remain impotent for the rest of your natural life, Hatter," Alice threatened as she poked his chest with a finger. His eyes widened at the threat. "How could you?"

"Well, I had my reasons..."

"I don't care! Not only did you drug me, but you left me here without a hint as to where you were. I woke up six hours ago, Hatter, and I've been terrified ever since. What if something happened to you? I was scared to death I'd never see you again!" Alice punctuated her words by giving him another thump in his arm. It was a gentler hit this time. "Don't ever do that to me again!"

Hatter was touched by her concern, seeing it simmering beneath her anger. He still wasn't used to anyone being concerned over him, and the novelty of it was still rather touching. Without thinking he smiled and reached out to touch her cheek, but Alice jerked her head away.

"And don't ever drug me again either!"

Hatter sighed. "Alice, you needed the rest, and I couldn't take you to the Underground. Dodo would never talk to me."

"I wouldn't have come..." Alice paused, seeing his look and flinching, because she knew he was right. Alice never did like to be left behind.

"Alice. I'm sorry. The drug was harmless enough. Nothin' more than an herbal tea, I swear. Just a very…strong one, that's all," Hatter said, rubbing at the back of his neck self-consciously. He sighed and leaned back on the counter, crossing his ankles. "I won't drug you like that again."

Alice narrowed her eyes at him. He really wasn't promising her anything by saying that; if anything he was leaving it open so that it could happen again if need be. That way it would be almost impossible to call him a liar because he hadn't specifically promised. She _**hated**_ when he did that. It was such a typical 'con' move, one she knew he'd always have. Still, she couldn't be angry at him for it. It was hard enough to get him to apologize in the first place.

"So what are we going to do?" Alice demanded, turning back around. Hatter was in no mood to talk to the back of his lover's head. He pulled her back around, keeping his arms around her.

"There is one more source I can find, in the South, and Dodo gave me a map as to where the Quadrille is. My bet is that they are the ones who have your mother and Charlie."

"What about Jack's son?" Alice asked, and Hatter shook his head.

"I think that was someone else, Alice. We're going to have to take care of this on our own." Hatter watched the look on her face, seeing how she didn't like that answer. She was attached to her godson and Jack was her friend, so for him to suggest they could not help was hard on her.

"I'll want to see Amelia first," Alice answered. "Jack may have put us under house arrest, but she'll be the one to release us."

"I'll send word..."

"I've already done it. The guards outside were irritating me so I asked that they deliver a letter for me," she interrupted. Hatter stared at her and she blushed. "I was trying to find things to do, and I decided that getting us out of house arrest would be the best thing."

"I've told you that I love how you think, yeah?" Hatter questioned with a grin, and she rolled her eyes affectionately.

"So what, we're going to be trying to take a Scarab or something?" Alice asked, not relishing the idea of having to fly. Hatter shook his head.

"No-pe." He popped the 'p' as he spoke, and Alice looked at him suspiciously.

"I'm not walking to the South. Never been there, but I'm sure it's a distance. Have you seen my shoes? Don't even suggest it!" Alice complained, and he grinned.

"So my sending Mouse out to retrieve the horses from the Cook would have been a bad thing?" Hatter asked, and she rolled her eyes. This really wasn't getting any better.

"I don't think my backside ever recovered from all that riding we did a year ago. Unless you like looking at my butt being purple and blue."

"Blue is a rather lovely color on you, luv. However, I was thinkin' you should experience a wee bit more of Wonderland transit. The train for example," Hatter offered, and she frowned at him.

"The train?" she repeated stupidly. He had always said they should never take the train. In typical Hatter fashion, he had exaggerated about its lack of safety and the fact that it only ran South. Hatter misjudged her question, thinking she didn't know anything about it, and decided to help her.

"It runs off the waterways, goes South. If we're followed, - and I know we will be because Dodo is the kind of ass that would have us followed- then we can throw them off by loading the horses onto the train." Hatter let her go, and pulled a pair of silver and gold tickets from his back pocket. He slapped them onto the kitchen counter, grinning at her when he saw her confusion.

For a moment, a slice of vulnerability showed in her eyes and she looked almost childish. "You really think my mom was taken South?"

"It's the only place I can think of, Alice. And if I can find this source, we'll know for certain," Hatter said, keeping his voice gentle. He didn't dare show his own doubts to her, preferring to keep them locked inside instead. He certainly didn't want her to doubt him. She swallowed and nodded briskly.

"Ok, South it is. Should be interesting I guess?" Alice offered, and the grin he gave her became wicked.

"You can't say I never take you anywhere, luv."


	6. The Unlikeliest of Companions

It was a strange thing to wake up to, the sound of a train car rumbling and a high-pitched snoring that rasped like a poorly tuned instrument. The wheezing was bad enough, but the rumbling had enough force to shake the small cabin forcing Carol to open her eyes. It was a mistake the moment she did, for the glare from the swinging light bulb overhead caused her to groan in pain. Her head felt like it had been stuck in a vice. Even her eyes felt swollen, as if she had slept too long, and they had closed over. It was a sort of pain that she had never felt before; providing her with a rather harsh wake-up call.

Groaning, she rolled over onto her stomach, pushing herself up from the ground. However, the discordant combination of harsh sound and pain resounding in her head stilled her movements. Placing her hands to her head as though it would keep the pain at bay, she tried to reflect on past events. Perhaps grasping her whereabouts would detour her from focusing on the pain.

Or at the very least keep her from screaming like she wanted to.

Carol began to gather her wits as she reflected. This wasn't the first time she had woken up since the exploding of the strange Looking Glass. She found it odd that rather than being overwhelmed by her situation, since she had thankfully avoided such feelings due to fading in and out of consciousness. In fact, Carol felt as though it was just crazy dream that she couldn't quite yet wake from. _'It could all be a dream for all I know,'_ she thought to try to encourage her self that things weren't as bad as they seemed.

Soon enough, her thoughts started to betray her feelings as the reality of the situation began to sink in.

She staggered to her feet, rapidly blinking away the fog that clouded her vision. She made it over to a wall and felt its smooth metal, the sort that would be used to make a boxcar on a train. In the dim light, she could just make out the framework of a door. Walking slowly, she leaned against the frame and groped for a release handle. It took a few frustrating moments before her body finally stopped feeling sluggish enough that she could wrap her fingers around the handle. Carol pulled and twisted and jerked on the handle, all in quick order and over and over again. Despite her strained attempt however, the door wouldn't budge.

"Damn it," she whispered, wondering if maybe she was just too weak from her shock. Pressing her hand against the door, she leaned in, adding more strength, but still nothing moved.

"Hello?" she called out, knocking on the door.

Her voice echoed through the narrow box before finally fading away. With it went the last straw of Carol's patience.

"Hey!" Carol slammed her open palm against the metal door. It caused her hand to ache, but she continued with fervor that rivaled her daughters.

The ever present snoring continued loudly behind her, clearly unbothered by her shouting. She glared at the covered culprit who produced such a noise before turning her anger back towards the door. She shouted and shouted until she eventually grew hoarse, her throat and head aching as a result. Sighing, she slowly slumped against the door…defeated.

Just as she had given up on anyone answering her, she suddenly heard the thud of footfalls just outside the door. Pressing her ear against it, she listened hard. There was a clang of something opening, and she jumped back just as a metal slat opened to reveal a pair of beady black eyes. Those same eyes were almost overwhelmed by a massive pair of spectacles. Their coke-bottle style would have been rather comical if she had been back home and confronted with them. Carol stared back in clueless shock before finally clearing her throat. She could only watch as his eyes went over her from head to toe. From what she could see, he appeared to be a man. Judging on what she had experienced so far, however, looks could be deceiving.

"So you're up, eh Oyster?" the man asked, his voice casual and unconcerned. Carol's temper flared as she planted her hands on her hips.

"I demand to know who you are and where I am!" She snapped causing the man to blink in surprise. He had clearly not expected her to be angry.

"What is with you Oysters demandin' things, eh? I swear, every one I've ever met or seen is always ordering people about. "Where is this? What is this? Why can't I do this?" Questions, questions, questions!" the man grumbled in retaliation. Then, like a child, he blew a raspberry in her face. The ridiculous scene caused Carol's eyebrows to rise in both disgust and thin amusement. The disgust won though, as spittle dripped from his lips. "If you must know, I'm called Bobby, son of old Father William the Cagey. He was a lawyer you know, down in the courts. A fine one too, never lost a case against me 'mam. There was this one time when I went off on my own and he argued to have me right back to home."

Carol blinked and he took her silence as encouragement to continue. Unsure on how to respond to the strange creature's change in topics, Carol began to grow frustrated as he rattled on and on about lawyers. Finally, she had to interrupt, "What on Earth are you talking about?"

"Oh no, no. Not Earth…Wonderland. That's where you are and THAT is the subject of our conversatin'," Bobby interjected, evidently pleased to have corrected her.

His eyes blinked at her from behind his glasses, and Carol pressed her hand to her forehead. His obvious lack of grammar and the lack of attention reaffirmed Carol's belief that some types of idiots were not just segregated to her world. Taking a deep breath, she tried again.

"Where am I?" Maybe it would be better if she asked just one question very slowly..

"On a train of course," he responded with a foolish grin.

Obviously, dumbing her question and speaking slowly wasn't going to work either. He must have seen the furious look on her face, because he backed away and went a bit red.

"I can't tell you that." Putting his word games aside, he finally gave her an honest answer. He started to close the slat as if he couldn't wait to get away from her.

"What?" Carol's hand prevented him from closing the open slot and she had to ignore the pain it caused when he nearly closed it on her fingers.

"Alls I know is that you're quite safe with us here, yes indeed. Better here than what they wanted to do to you there." Bobby was back to word games, and Carol was on the verge of frustrated tears. She threw up her hands in disbelief.

"I was visiting my daughter and her boyfriend. How exactly could being **there** be a terrible thing?" Her voice sounded strained from the urge to scream at the stupid man.

"It just is!" The man sighed in exasperation.

Then, as if that had ended the conversation, he slammed the slat shut and it returned Carol back to her dark prison. She stared stupidly at the vacant space between her and the door. She was now more confused than when she had first woken up. If this was what Wonderland was like, then she should have considered bringing along a rhyming dictionary and a substantial amount of aspirin. Added to her frustration, she didn't think she could handle being locked up with her snoring counterpart. She glanced at the slumbering form. No, she _knew_ she couldn't handle being locked in this hell. Not with that sort of noise going on.

She pounded on the door once more, but her cries landed on deaf ears or likely no ears at all. Finally, she gave up as she rested her head against the doorframe. How had her daughter dealt with this all without going mad with frustration?

Then, like someone choking his or her self awake, the snoring abruptly stopped. Carol whipped her head around as the snoring was suddenly replaced by the sound of clanking metal. Sitting up with the rigidity of a marionette, an elderly man took in his surroundings with wide confused eyes.

"Where in Wonderland..." He had a refined voice that was marred by the jitteriness of his movements. His eyes were bird-bright and remarkably clear despite the obvious sleep he had been in. "Oh, the trials and tribulations yet continue. How horrid!"

Carol pressed herself against the door, and stared at him with great hesitation. _This_ was not getting any better. His eyes suddenly snapped to hers and he grinned stupidly.

"You... you must be Alice's mother! You have the look of her you know! The same set to your jaw and eyes." The elderly stranger bounced up with surprising agility. Before Carol could even begin to understand what he had just said, he was right in front of her. His eyes glittered in excitement, "Oh it is such a pleasure! Such a rare pleasure!"

He grabbed her hand, shaking it so hard that her shoulder actually ached. Yanking her hand back, Carol clutched her wrist, staring wide-eyed at the older man who grinned so stupidly at her. His eyes raked over her as though she was something fascinating. He was ignorant to the fact that he was invading her personal space and Carol flinched as he stepped forward again.

"Who are you? One of Alice's friends in Wonderland?" Carol's voice was a horse whisper and she wrinkled her nose at the gentleman's pungent smell of pepper and horse.

"I am a White Knight. _The_ White Knight, actually. Sir Charles Eustace Fortheringhay Le Malvoy the Third, at your humble service, Just Mother of Just Alice. I am the Guardian of the Kingdom of the Knights, the premiere hunter of the beasts of Wabe Forest, Inventor Extraordinaire, and -most importantly- a friend to Justalice and her comrades. I am also the Guardian of the Curtsey, my good woman." his long-winded introduction was actually followed by a sorry attempt at a dignified curtsey, his knees popping as he did so.

Carol closed her eyes and counted to three. Opening them she held on to what sanity she had left. "Do you perhaps have a simpler title to go by because with the day I'm having there is no way in Hell I'm going to remember _all_ of that," her voice rose in pitch as her patience finally declared that it needed a vacation.

Despite her sarcasm, his innocent eyes turned thoughtful as though he was trying to come up with something witty. Then, with a slight hesitation he responded," Charlie…?"

Carol blinked. Not knowing what else to do, she reached out, and helped him stand up properly. 'Charlie' dusted himself off and grinned manically at her.

"And you are called?" he asked.

"Carol Hamilton," Carol sighed.

"Carol?" he spat out the word as if he wasn't used it. "That is a rather... simple, isn't it?"

Carol was tempted to say, ' _Compared to your directory of titles, I'd say so. So far, my name is probably the_ _ **only**_ _simple thing in this insane asylum._ ' But, before she could air her witty comeback, the events of the explosion suddenly overrode her recollection.

"You were the one who saved me from the platform when it exploded," she remembered with awe. Suddenly, she was ashamed of her previous thoughts and cutting sarcasm. She watched as his ears went as red as his cheeks. "Thank you."

"I would do anything for Alice of Legend and that extends to her mother." He sniffed before looking about. "And we shall start with our escape from this horrid place!"

"Do you even know where we are?" she questioned. He shrugged as though it didn't really matter.

"We are captured, and in... a train. But never fear, I shall be able to decipher a way for us to escape!" He began to run his hands over the cab walls.

Carol watched him with wide eyes as he roamed their prison cell, his eyes closing as though in deep concentration. _Could this get much worse?_ Carol felt the beginnings of her headache returning. Charlie then began to speak to the walls as though they were listening, causing her to roll her eyes in retaliation. ' _Yes_ ,' she thought, _'apparently, it can.'_

* * *

Alice stood on the train station platform, feeling like she had been plunged back through time. An array of Wonderlanders, dressed in clothing similar to 1930's vintage, surrounded her; some were boarding the train while others were on the platform saying goodbye. In order to blend in and at Hatter's insistence, she was dressed just like the rest of them with her long hair tucked up underneath a cap she had borrowed from him. It had changed her appearance just enough that they had been able to slip by several Suits. She believed that the reason why they slipped by was because Hatter had dressed down for once. He had her claim that she was his younger brother and by keeping her head down a. So far, no one looked close enough to figure it out. Hatter's old long coat was too loose for anyone to guess by her shape and no one looking would guess that she was wearing leggings and a skirt.

Even if they did, Alice was pretty positive that Wonderland had more than its share of men who wore skirts.

Peering out from under her hat brim, Alice eyed the people boarding the South-bound Ouesten Thirteen. Many of them had a well-fed, rich appearance; in fact, none of them looked poorly off. They definitely were not the sort she would see at Hatter's Tea Shop or in any of the levels of Wonderland City where they lived. Judging by the pure pompous look of some of the men, Alice figured that these were likely what Hatter often referred to as "toffs".

Alice glanced over at the clock lantern. It was ticking backwards from six, and she could swear that the first hand wasn't really moving. Apparently, time didn't seem to matter in regards to this train. All the same, the platform was getting rather crowded, and Alice felt exposed surrounded by all these people.

She had come to the platform after leaving the cargo area. They had been able to have the horses loaded up into the cargo section of the train. The Cook had been confused by Hatter's request to have Arthur and Guinevere delivered, and judging by what Toby Mouse had told them, she had been furious. Her husband was missing, and she was angry that no one had come to the Inn to tell her. Hatter had wanted to put as much distance between himself and Cook when he had revealed that Charlie had been kidnapped and not just missing. He'd used one of the antique holograph mirrors on the train, so to save having more pots and pans thrown at him.

Thankfully, she had still allowed Mouse to take the horse to them, on the stipulation that Hatter contact her the moment they were able to send word of their whereabouts.

Listening to the warning call of the ticketmaster, Alice began to feel uneasy.

_Where was Hatter?_

She jumped when a hand suddenly tugged on her coat collar.

"Did I ever tell you that you look positively delectable in one of my hats?" Hatter breathed out in her ear. He had materialized out of nowhere it seemed, and she smiled in relief, not turning around.

"Once or twice before we left," she answered tipping her head to look over at him. Hatter stood at her shoulder, staring down at her. His clothing created a much more muted presence that just wasn't Hatter; the black striped shirt, black coat and pants were less colorful than what he normally wore. Still, it was a look she liked. Knowing she had been staring, she looked back ahead and ignored the grin he was now giving her. She knew that she had better change the subject before he made one of his cocky remarks about her ogling him.

"Where'd you go? I've been waiting here for a while," she inquired.

"Was getting some forgeries finished. We're still supposed to be under house arrest -thank you Jackie-boy-, so I got one of my guys to put together a Royal Access Grant." He opened up his coat to show her the letter tucked into his belt next to the small gun holster. The sight of the gun made Alice arch a brow, but Hatter ignored her. He opened the letter, but closed it too quickly before she could get a good look at it. She did however see the stamp of the Royal Seal; Jack was the only one that carried that as far as Alice knew. She flicked her eyes back up to Hatter. He had the grace to look a little sheepish. "It is really better if you don't ask me how I got the impression of the seal."

"I bet," she said, bending to grab her side-bag. "Are we good to go?"

Hatter shouldered his own bag and grinned. "After you, luv."

"What, and no goodbye?"

The cultured voice through the din of the crowd made them both whirl around. The Queen was standing only a few paces away, flanked by two massive Suits with Spade marks on their dour clothing. She herself was dressed down, encompassed by a dark cloak with a hood pulled close over her face. Even with her face shadowed, Amelia looked cold and imperious.

"How'd you know we were here?" Hatter demanded and she arched a meaningful brow at him. It caused him to hiss, "Dodo, of course. Nosy old bird."

"He was trying to get me to announce your arrest. Jack has already left to track our son down. That trail was leading to the wilderness," Amelia explained. "He would kill me for this, metaphorically speaking of course, but I came to give you what aid I can offer. I cannot lift the house arrest he inflicted but understand that the Council pressured him to do that."

When Alice gave a pointed look to the two bodyguards, the Queen waved an impatient hand. "These are my personal guards who have been with my family for years. Sworn to loyalty and secrecy."

"Why would you disobey Jack?" Alice asked, still keeping an eye on the Spades.

"Because I know what it feels like to lose your family. Besides I believe there is an ulterior motive here. This is all too suspicious. Who would kidnap an Oyster after destroying the Looking Glass? On the same day the Royal Heir goes missing?" Amelia questioned; Hatter nodded in agreement, glad that she was at least being logical. The Suit to her left handed her a small folder, to which Amelia promptly handed over to Hatter. "Here. These are the lists of safe-houses in the South and their code-words. Our rule does not have quite the weight it should in the South, but some still show us the proper respect. If things truly go sour, then you can go to the Governor there as well," Amelia offered.

Hatter gazed down at the helpful info now in his possession. "Thank you." His gratitude was grudging, but there none-the-less.

"Who exactly are you pursuing? If the trail goes South, then that leaves hundreds of miles for you to search. That can only mean that you two have a hint. Neither of you would go blindly into the unknown." Amelia ignored Hatter's begrudging appreciation to further question their efforts.

"An ex-Agent I knew in the White Rabbit, the Gnat," Hatter explained as he put the file in his bag. "He was privy to information from all sides. He suspiciously left town a few days ago. Might even be on this very train hiding out. If I can get him to talk, chances are we'll get a clear path to Alice's mum."

"The Gnat," Amelia repeated. "You'll have a hard time with that one. Jack's mother had him altered by the Carpenter."

Involuntarily, Alice flinched, and Hatter noticed.

"Altered how?" he asked, focusing on Amelia to see if she could be trying to tell him something else.

"He's a Shape Shifter now. You cannot imagine the amount of magical mushrooms and transfusions that it took to pull that one off." Amelia put her hand to her neck as though stroking the air above it. "As you probably already know, the South is a very dangerous place on the whole. I'm worried about the both of you. Don't think I don't know that neither one of you know where you are going or what you are getting into. I used to live there, and I barely knew all the places I could go."

"A Shape Shifter?" Hatter parroted, stuck on this new information. What he knew of the Gnat was simple. Gnat was the unlikeliest of people to be targeted by anyone, which was what made him the perfect double agent. But this development was... not pleasant. He didn't like the thought of combining magic and experimentation, especially if it's the twisted variety once practiced by the old Queen of Hearts.

"Perhaps I can offer you some help. Perhaps a guide? Though it would be rather unorthodox," she admitted, and Hatter frowned. Still stuck on her private worries about her father, Alice glanced at Amelia's neck again as she listened. She had to blink several times to be sure she wasn't seeing things. What looked like a row of teeth in a half-moon shape had appeared on Amelia's shoulder.

"What're you talkin' about?" Hatter demanded, getting anxious as more and more people started to board the train. The next one wouldn't run for a week.

"You have to swear not to overreact!" Amelia said nervously. Alice watched as the teeth suddenly belonged to a cat's head, which then led into the tabby body of a plump cat. It was draped like a fur stole over Amelia's shoulders. Alice had only seen a cat grin like that once before, but this one was a thousand times creeper.

She knew exactly what she was looking at. Alice hadn't seen the Cheshire since she had transformed him a year ago. Occasionally, she would hear that he was kept in the kitchens as a mouse hunter. Gone was the scraggly thin animal; instead, he resembled a well-fed Persian. The only remnants of the man that Chesh had been were those cunning bright green eyes and that eerie grin.

"You have to be joking," Alice whispered. She met Amelia's eyes with an icy glare. "After all that happened and what he did, you'd think we'd be happy about this suggestion?"

Beside her, Hatter was barely controlling his temper. Amelia looked uncomfortable.

"He is magical, and he _was_ a guide, even though it was a long time ago. Guides were trained, back in the day, to know every part of Wonderland. He knows the South. Neither of _you_ do," Amelia pointed out.

"I don't like this." Hatter glared at the cat on her shoulder. "We're supposed to follow him around, prayin' that he don't get us killed?"

"He has terms," Amelia continued as if he didn't speak. "He wants his other form back. Then he wishes to be transferred to the Lakes District Penal Colony. I think it is a matter of pride, really. Who wants to be a cat?"

"What is to stop him from running?" Alice asked. Amelia lifted a hand and slipped off a green bracelet. Handing it to Alice, she glanced at Hatter and tried her best not to feel a twinge of fear at the look on his face. "This."

Alice turned it over in her hand, looking at the nine charms that hung from the bracelet. "It's a bracelet," she said stupidly.

"It is a control bracelet, designed by our scientists using a special... well, you shouldn't know that." Amelia wrinkled her nose. "The bracelet connects to a chip inserted under his skin. Should he disappear, not come when you call him, or try something, you simply crush one of the charms. He'll be forced to come back... but not before he dies."

"Nine lives, nine charms," Alice muttered incredulously.

"Can we try it out now?" Hatter grumbled, eyeing the cat with undisguised distaste. Chesh hissed back at him, ears flattening out to the side. Amelia tugged hard on his tail.

"Knock it off, or I _will_ grant Hatter's request. You swore to this promise, Cheshire, and therefore you are now bound to it," Amelia warned. The cat growled low in its throat. Standing up on her shoulders, Chesh suddenly sprang onto Alice's shoulders, settling there. Alice fidgeted uncomfortably. Hatter's displeasure was very obvious.

"Hatter, I know this is a bad idea in your head, but we do need a guide. I need to find Mom the fastest way possible," Alice pleaded. He pointed a finger at her.

"All right but it is on your head if somethin' goes wrong," he snapped. He looked back at Amelia. "Your Majesty," he sneered before moving onto the train.

Alice and Amelia both watched him talk to the conductor, neither seeing how Chesh faded from view. Alice could barely feel his weight now.

"He does worry about you deeply, Alice. But I have to warn you, the South is not like the City. There is a different kind of danger there, and you won't have Jack's protection. Not really," Amelia cautioned and the two women looked at each other. Alice could see that under Amelia's calm facade there was a deep pain at the loss of her son. A pain Alice found herself feeling in sympathy.

"I'm sorry we couldn't help Jack, Amelia. But..."

"This is a time when loyalties have to split, Alice. I would never ask either of you to just obey Jack's orders blindly. Especially Hatter," Amelia said wryly. "Use the Underground to send me reports. But I cannot send you much more aid. The Council will be on shaky ground without Jack to control them."

"Will you be all right?" Alice asked and the Queen nodded.

"How can any of this be worse?" She shrugged. "I have been negotiating with the Courts since I was a girl. The Council is volatile, but I can control them until Jack returns. He does need me for that."

"Thank you," Alice said as she moved to join Hatter. Amelia grabbed her arm gently, and held her still.

"All the same, Alice... I do have to suggest that you keep an eye on Hatter. If Dodo is so willing to turn on him, then there is a possibility that his other contacts will do so too. And there is much more to this than I think any of us _is_ a good choice to protect you," Amelia insisted, " _As long as_ he doesn't keep anything from you."

That said, the Queen gave her a respectful nod then left the platform. Frowning, Alice picked up her bag again and turned. She could feel the cat's phantom weight on her shoulders, and wondered if Hatter was very angry with her. He was still speaking to the conductor, who was now holding a wood box.

Unfortunately, Amelia had brought one of Alice's own insecurities to light with her comment. Alice had to admit as she watched Hatter speak with the conductor that there were times that she wasn't entirely sure about her boyfriend. She trusted him almost implicitly, but there was so much he still didn't share with her. She had long ago figured out that the Tea Shop had been, in some ways, just a front for more illegal things; that Hatter's business ran a full gamut of strange activities. That was almost nothing in her eyes these days. Yet... he never did tell her what he had done before she had come to Wonderland. The bare facts about his childhood she knew. She believed that if she asked him, he would try answering her questions. Suddenly she paused in mid-thought, realizing that that wasn't entirely true. He actually hadn't answered any of her questions at all, and he had done it all too well.

She understood though, for she too did not wish to bring up the past. Those years of searching and living without her father still burned a slow hole in her own heart.

Still, Hatter _had_ managed to coerce most of her past out of her. All the while though, he never once told her anything about his past. All she knew was what she had witnessed from the day she met him. The bits and pieces she _had_ learned about his childhood had been from other sources, and it had not painted a pretty picture.

The scattered knowledge of his checkered past lead her to believe that there really was another life to Hatter. A life before she had come to Wonderland; the one she knew nothing about. Before, she had just assumed that part of his life would remain in the dark. At the time, it really hadn't matter what he had done. To her, their future was the more important. Now, however, she was left to wonder what _really_ had happened. What was it that had shaped Hatter into who he was?

She knew she shouldn't worry, but there were times when she needed to know. They were about to head into territory that could very much make his past become his present. She did not want to be unprepared. Alice wondered if her life before Wonderland was just too ordinary for her to understand. It puzzled her.

That disturbing thought must have showed on her face because Hatter tried to gain her attention by waving his hand in front of her eyes. He grinned at her when she blinked a few times, and she gave him a hesitant smile in return. Glad that he finally had her attention, Hatter then eyed her shoulders in irritation.

"We can take the cat aboard with us, but he's goin' into the pet section… In a crate," he explained. The invisible cat gave a growl on Alice's shoulders. Hatter looked smug, as if he was going to turn annoying the cat into his personal joke for his amusement.

"Seems fair." Alice took a step toward the train, but Hatter caught her arm.

"You all right, luv?" he asked, and she gave him a weak smile.

"Mostly. Come on," she answered as she looped her arm through his. "Another quest awaits us."

"Gettin' right bit sick of it if ya ask me," Hatter grumbled good-naturedly. Alice chuckled because she could see the anticipation in his eyes. Complain as he might, Hatter enjoyed the danger as much as she did.

She could only hope that she could get to her mom in time.


	7. Passing the Time

The Ouestern Train ran rather smoothly for an old relic of a train. It was pulled by an old locomotive built similar to old trains from the 1800s. It rocked and swayed with a gentle rhythm as it passed through tunnels beneath the Lake surrounding the City. The train tunnels were intricate enough that to get through them all, the train had to run a longer distance. The train hadn't stopped once since leaving the Central Station; the conductor having announced that it was on a rush course to the South Towns.

The boxcars were all separated, so that Alice and Hatter occupied their own private cab. Beyond seeing the occasional trolley cart, they were for the most part left alone. Chesh had been put into the cargo hold. The angry cat had angrily glared at a smug Hatter through the wire frame of the crate, and Alice had to admit that for such a small beast, he sure made a lot of noise.

Hatter had simply diverted her attention away from the Cheshire's antics by showing her where she could rest in the train cab; the private booth had made it a rather quiet and relatively smooth ride. Oddly, Hatter hadn't liked the idea of sharing a cabin with anyone, which raised Alice's suspicion.

Considering the possible length of their trip, and the size of the cab, she supposed it made sense not to invite unknown company into their cabin. Looking around, she noted that the old fashioned décor. The heavily brocaded curtains and two old velvet bench seats didn't appear to be very welcoming or comfortable. In fact, it made the small cab appear even smaller, especially if there had been another couple to occupy the bench across from them. Add in Hatter's ability to excessively chatter, the aptness in the three of them traveling alone became clearer to Alice.

Far beneath the Lake, they were passing under one of the longest tunnels where an old pipeline that had been converted to a train track years ago. It was made up as a combination of dense glass and iron, which alleviated the darkness of the lake's depth when light, shined upon it. Alice found the sight rather frightening, especially when she considered how fragile the glass tunnels were in comparison to depth and pressure of the lake.

Despite the sunlight streaming in, the train cars were dimly lit, and Hatter had given up on reading the file provided to him by Amelia. This resulted in Alice having to listen to several rambling monologues from Hatter, which led to Alice throwing a pillow at his head; a hint to shut up and get some sleep. Rather than argue with her like he would normally do, Hatter simply threw his arm around Alice, and leaned against the side of the bench before promptly dozing off.

The silence had left Alice alone with her thoughts, making her slightly uncomfortable. Not having the heart to wake Hatter, nor the desire to listen to his never-ending chatter, Alice opted for observing him instead. Even though he tried to hide it, Hatter had been exhausted from his escapade around Wonderland. They weren't likely to get much rest when the train stopped in the South, so he needed to rest while he could. He would do her no good if incapacitated by sleep deprivation. She needed Hatter to show his best game face if they were going to stand a chance in finding her mother.

Hatter hadn't explained just how long it would take for them to get to his sources, but knowing Wonderland, it was definitely not going to be easy or over quickly.

The PA speaker above the doorway suddenly crackled, and Alice felt Hatter grumble in his sleep, his arms tightening around her. Alice adjusted his tight grip, and listened to the continued garble from the conductor. The announcement about a tea and lunch trolley going around was a welcome one. She knew that if she did manage to get a cup, Hatter was likely to wake up in a better mood. He would still criticize their selection, but at least it would be tea. There was even a possibility of something to eat to placate her grumbling tummy.

Alice leaned against Hatter, feeling the gentle rise and fall of his breathing as he slept. He was wonderfully warm; so warm that she was glad she had hung up her coat. The rocking motion of the train didn't seem to bother him, nor did the sound of passengers passing by the door to their cab. Alice, on the other hand, was on guard. Experiences with shifty riders from her home-world's subways had left her alert and cautious. Besides that, there was no way she could sleep right now. The thoughts about what was going on with the Looking Glass and what may happen with her mother were running a marathon through her mind. It really seemed like she was to never meant to have a simple life here in Wonderland, even after giving up her own world; sacrificing her old life.

Hatter hid things from her, and she was used to that. Yet in return, she was hiding her own fears about this from him. What would happen in the South? What exactly was it that this mysterious group would want with her Mother that they hadn't already tried with her? Alice didn't like to think that things could get any worse, but knowing Wonderland, things could and would get very very bad.

It was the flip side to the beautiful strangeness that was Wonderland. It came with a high price, and never when you expected it. Nothing was ever perfect, and it often came with a terrible doppelganger of danger.

Behind her, Hatter grumbled something in his sleep about ravens and desks, his arms re-tightening in reflex around her. Alice wondered if her happiness with him was coming at the cost of her mother. She would never once tell him that, because knowing Hatter he would pull the 'martyr' move: telling her to return home. However, that in strategic move would have made them both desperately unhappy. Alice had her reasons for never wanting to leave him again, but she still needed to find her mother all the same. Her mother was her last real link to her old life; her sole parent with whom she still depended upon. Alice had never acutely felt that way about her mother until she had sadly lost her father. And though she loved Hatter deeply, Carol Hamilton still meant the world to her. For now though, she thought it better to keep those specific thoughts from Hatter.

Hatter's hand slipped along her waist in his sleep. Alice shut her eyes and sighed as her mind returned to the present. Staring at his hand on her abdomen, she acknowledged it as a frank reminder of what she still hadn't told him. She wasn't positive; she was never likely to be certain until they had a moment when she could find a doctor in Wonderland. That would likely be never, knowing how long these journeys tended to be. Their adventures in the Taiga had taken weeks, and even her first journey into Wonderland had been taxing.

However, she had had enough sex education to know she might be pregnant. The signs were all there: morning sickness, her emotions running rampant, skipped periods. Considering the control freak that she could be, the idea of it was rather daunting. She had always been so careful with other boyfriends, but that was a bit of a struggle when it came to Hatter. He might claim that she was his weakness, but Alice had to admit, he in return was her own Achilles' heel. After their living together had become permanent, Alice had started to take the contraceptive liquorices the doctors provided her. When thinking about the amount of sex they did have, she had known that she didn't want the risk of becoming pregnant.

Despite her efforts though, there were the moments when, in the heat and intensity of the moment, that she and Hatter had been careless…very careless in fact, and rather repeatedly at times. Those wonderful times however, had made her smile in memory.

Hatter had been _such_ a bad influence on her. She had suspected her pregnancy a few weeks ago when she had been so ill before the naming ceremony for Jack's son. The skipping of her cycles had increased her suspicions as well, but still she had held back in confirming with a doctor. There was always the chance that it was just a fluke anyway, and yet... Alice was almost wishing it wasn't. She was both excited and absolutely terrified of the idea of being pregnant. Not once had she anticipated it, at least not before she and Hatter could discuss the possibility. That worried her.

It wasn't that she was uncertain about her pregnancy. It was rather sudden; only a few years before she'd never thought to have children just yet. Maybe years down the road when she was finally up to the challenge… or maybe never. Even so, after coming to grips with the idea of it, she was gradually becoming more accustomed and excited about the idea.

She was hiding it because of Hatter.

It wasn't that he might be a terrible father or hated children. He was remarkably comfortable around small children, and strangely it seemed that he found children easier to like than adults. He had admitted that to her when she had teased him about talking to his godson as if the boy were an adult. Yet there was always an edgy tension around Hatter when it came to being responsible for a child, especially when it came to the idea of being a father. It was a tension Alice had never been able to soften nor understand.

The subject of fatherhood had come up casually one night when they were discussing her last days in her world. She remembered how tense he had become when she had tried to mention, casually of course, that she had tested herself for pregnancy. Hatter had responded, in few words, that he had never seen himself as a fathering sort, and that he doubted the opportunity would ever truly arise.

His facial expression had actually taken that of blank mask. The one he would use whenever faced with uncertainty. The memory of his dark blank eyes still stuck in Alice's mind, making her nervous about what she had told him. About what she would have to tell him soon. They were both adults, both very aware of the inevitable conclusion about sex, but damn it! She was still a woman, a woman who was scared to pieces. Alice had never seen herself as the motherly type, which made the idea of pregnancy all the more terrifying. However, though the thought of such responsibility was terrifying to her, she was still willing to try. She just hoped that Hatter shared that same sentiment. She didn't want him to withdraw, like he often did, if she was indeed pregnant.

Then there was a more serious reason. Alice was going into this dangerous pursuit. Risking her own life was one thing, but the safety of her child was a whole 'nother kettle of onions. Unconsciously, her fingers drifted over Hatter's where they rested on her belly.

So lost in her thoughts, Alice didn't feel Hatter wake up.

"I think," Hatter started, his fingers suddenly drifting down her arm. Alice jerked, startled out of her thoughts by his vibrating voice in her ear. She tried to lift herself up off of him, but his grip tightened to keep her still while his lips brushed the top of her head. Craning her neck to the side **,** Alice looked up at him and saw that he was peeping down at her with playful dark eyes.

"You think what?" she asked, keeping her voice as low as his. Alice recognized this look. Hatter was up to something.

"That we should play a game. To pass the time, ye know?"

She chuckled as she slid her fingers against his knee, dragging her nails against the soft cotton of his trousers. She knew exactly what he meant by playing a game. "You want to play I-Spy?" she attempted, playing dumb.

"Hmm? Nah. I think we should play something more in our age range. Somethin' more fun. What do you say?" he asked, his lips brushing her ear as he spoke. Alice shivered as she felt his hand on her stomach, pressing down lightly. _Oh, he was definitely up to something_.

"What...precisely...do you have in mind?"

"I like to call it, 'Can Alice keep quiet?'"

Alice blinked as she thought it over. That sounded familiar. "I think we've played that before."

"Ah, but never on a train," Hatter invited and Alice sighed.

"Seriously? We can't just play I-Spy?" she wheedled and Hatter nipped at the side of her neck. The soft, hot drag of his tongue against her skin sent goosebumps crawling up her arms and neck. He paused as his mouth went to her ear again.

"No-pe." His fingers drew a gentle circle on her stomach. "You sure I can't entice you to join in on this game?"

"Well I'm sure it would be hard for you to play it by yourself, wouldn't it?" she jibed, rolling her eyes to the ceiling as she tipped her head on the side. Though he couldn't see her face, he knew just what expression she was giving. Hatter groaned as if in pain, lifting one hand and holding his fingers just a little apart.

"That was _**terrible,**_ Alice," he complained and she tried hard not to giggle.

"Well it is a rather good point to make. How exactly could you play that game by yourself?"

Hatter inhaled slowly."You do realize that it is remarkably hard to seduce you, Alice, when you question everything I do," Hatter complained. Alice was about to laugh, but he turned her head toward him and kissed the side of her mouth. Not about to give in, Alice twisted her head a bit and looked at him from the corner of her eye.

"We're on the way South, to pursue some kidnappers, and you're thinking sex is a good way to pass the time?" she questioned with a bit of an arch to her eyebrow as she looked him over. He chuckled while he tried to turn her around. Alice however, refused to move. Hatter grumbled under his breath, rolling his eyes for effect.

She was clearly waiting for an answer.

"Yep."

"Just wanted to be clear," Alice quipped wickedly and her eyes went slowly down his legs and then back up to where his hand was resting on her stomach. She whipped around and she pounced on him, her legs braced on either side of his on the seat. Hatter chuckled in delight as he caught her shoulders in his hands, anchoring her against his chest. Alice tried to kiss him, groaning when he held her off by cupping her face with his hand. Alice jerked her chin away. "You are such a tease."

"Mm...hmmm..." Hatter dropped his other hand to let it caress her thigh through her leggings and Alice twisted onto his lap. Hatter gave her an admonishing look. "And you, luv, are not following my rules."

Alice's eyes widened. "Rules now?"

"Remember? The game? Alice is not to make noise is the key part to this game, and I do like having things orderly you know. Games are meant to be played to win, and I do like to win." Hatter's fingers brushed up to the crease of her hip and thigh, causing Alice to bit her lower lip.

"Win what?"

"Braggin' rights of course." Hatter released her chin so that he could grasp her hair tightly, tipping her head back. Leaning forward, he began to bite, sucking on her neck as he listened to her faint moans. He lifted his head again to say smugly, "I get to say that I can make you moan even on a train where anyone could walk in."

"And if I... win?" Alice moaned, her breath hitching as Hatter sucked on her collarbone for a moment. He didn't answer her, the hand on her thigh guiding her to move in a slow grind against him. Which was something she was not about to resist. Hatter lifted his head enough that the delicious suction was gone, clearing her thoughts enough to quiet the moan that was threatening to escape.

"You still get to have good sex," Hatter answered. "Win or lose. Ain't I generous?"

Trying to put up an annoyed front, Alice huffed childishly and looked up at the ceiling. She wanted to roll her eyes, but the feel of his lips and hands were distracting her enough from multi-tasking. "Rather confident aren't we?"

"A year's worth of experience. I know exactly what buttons you like pushed," Hatter bragged, his tongue flicking out against her earlobe.

"Definitely over-confident," Alice muttered, only a little annoyed that he was right.

"Will you _please_ be quiet?" Hatter begged before suddenly cupping her breast through the fitted bodice of her shirt. "I am tryin' to seduce you."

"And win a game. I don't like to lose. Which is something you should know after a year of experience," Alice added.

Hatter's hot gaze was his effective rebuttal, and Alice knew that she was about to succumb to his bad influence. She contemplated as to whether proceeding to win the bet would be worth the possibly of getting caught and thrown off the train. Ultimately, Hatter made the decision for her as his hand darted up her skirt and roughly palmed her sex through her leggings.

She gasped as her eyes darkened with lust. She gazed at him, seeing the mirrored desire reflecting in his heated stare. Hatter arched his eyebrows at her cheekily.

"Make it worth your while?" he offered playfully as his fingers danced an impatient rhythm against her. Alice let a faint whimper leave her in response.

"Oh, you are going to pay for this," she promised. It was an empty threat, and they both knew it. She was enjoying this as much as he was **.**

"Promises promises, luv," Hatter whispered before turning her around on his lap. Leaning against the armrest, he tugged her back into his arms so that she lay with her back to his front. His fingers stopped caressing her, and Alice wanted to whimper at the loss. Hatter's breathing had deepened again, and for a moment she thought he had gone back to sleep. There was the possibility he'd do that just to frustrate her too.

Then he began to slowly caress her breasts through her shirt. Alice knew then that he fully intended on playing out his 'game'. He didn't even bother to unbutton her tight shirt. Their former position only changed by the fact that his own legs were now keeping hers apart. Like playing an instrument, he began to gently strum her covered nipples back and forth, humming deep in his throat some inane little ditty that kept rhythm with his stroking. It should have irritated her that he could so easily multi-task while driving her crazy with lust, but the vibration from his humming kept sending ripples up and down her back. The desire pooled between her legs letting her know that he was likely to win this 'game' if she didn't start defending home plate.

Alice began to breathe deeply to try to control the urge to moan for him to touch her more intimately. Despite her efforts, he seemed to notice anyway, his legs spreading hers a bit further while one hand began to smooth up and down her waist. Each inch was teasing her, pushing her further and further along, and Alice was close to grabbing his hands.

"Shh," Hatter whispered against her ear before he traced his tongue over the shell of it seductively. Alice swallowed the lump in her throat, and arched her hips up as his hand brushed her upper thigh. Her own hands dropped to clench hold of the top of his legs. His head dropped enough that she could just see him out of the corner of her eyes. There she saw that devilish grin that meant a world of trouble. Alice trembled as his hand teased along the top of her thigh while the other still stroked her nipples one at a time. Her entire body was desperate for more. She took a shaky breath as the tension coiled in her belly.

"Where you wantin' somethin, Alice?" he murmured, his warm breath sending a shiver down her neck. Knowing if she answered him she'd lose, Alice's only response was to dig her nails into his leg. The tension was making her entire body wind up tightly, and his hand suddenly shifted the hem of her skirt up over her waist. Squirming a little, Alice tipped her head to the side, encouraging him to tease the skin of her neck with his seductive mouth; her nails still digging into his legs. He began to pull her leggings down, inch by tiny inch, his fingers grazing over each bit of skin revealed.

Hatter's hand had just finished easing her leggings down past her thighs when the door latch suddenly began to click. The mood was almost instantly forgotten, as Alice leaped to her feet. Without much ceremony, she yanked up her leggings and tossed one of the coats onto of Hatter's lap, covering his obviously tented trousers. All the while, Hatter stared at her stupidly. Alice chose to ignore him as she moved to the door. She was determined to get there before it opened too far, revealing their foreplay to the busy hallway outside.

The trolley woman patiently waited outside, her cart laden with tea cups and tarts. She was the sort of apple-cheeked, plump woman Alice would have expected. She felt as though Cook had almost caught them, so close in resemblance was the trolley woman's cheery disposition. Alice did her best to keep her breathing steady and calm.

"Hello, darlin'. Was just pushing my tray by and thought I heard someone makin' noise in your car. I figured that it could be someone that was hungry, so I wanted to see if you wanted some of my best tarts," the trolley woman offered happily. Alice had to mask her wince when she leaned against the door and felt how tight her nipples were beneath her shirt. She was lucky the fabric she wore was heavy enough that it wouldn't show.

"Oh... we're just fine." Alice could see the woman trying to peer around her.

"And your friend there? He hungry for something?" she asked, and Alice heard a faint snort come from Hatter.

"'Course I'm hungry. Just what I planned on eatin' isn't co-operating," Hatter grumbled and Alice could feel her face flushing as the trolley woman gave her a confused look.

"Oh, he'll be fine. He had something when we came," Alice started, but flushed at her unintended pun, "Came aboard the train that is."

Behind her, Hatter gave a low chuckle and this time Alice tossed a glare over her shoulder. Hatter's head was resting back on the seat, trying to look perfectly innocent. She would have figured him to be asleep if it wasn't for the way his right hand was twitching impatiently, acting as if he could still feel her skin beneath him. Alice desperately wanted that to be the case.

"Well, should you need anything, the cafeteria cab is about six up from you. Good meals and hot tea," the woman offered, starting off again, pushing her trolley ahead of her and down the narrow aisle way. Alice gave her a sunny smile that felt as fake as it probably looked. Slowly, door was closed with a definitive click. Leaning her head against the door, she sighed. She was relieved, even if her body, still damp and tense with lust, was not.

There was a faint sound of breathing behind her and Alice swallowed the lump in her throat, knowing what was coming.

Hatter didn't disappoint.

She was shoved around and up against the door before she could think to say anything sarcastic about being interrupted. Hatter's hands gripped her hips impatiently, boosting her up against the door. Alice opened her mouth to speak, but Hatter stopped her with a kiss, his tongue delving past her lips, demanding a response. She moaned and gripped his shoulders tightly as she locked her legs around his hips. Hatter ground up against her; he was enjoying the faint squeak she couldn't quite keep in. Alice on the edge was a very dangerous thing for his ego, and he had to admit that hearing her moan like this, even after a year of being together, was definitely good for him. He let her hips go as one hand cupped and squeezed her breast hard enough to sting.

Alice didn't disappoint him, as she grinded her hips down against his impatiently. Her message was clear, and he let her lips go as he proceeded to kiss and caress her neck. He sank his teeth into the junction of her shoulder, and felt her shiver at the harsh action. Her hands went from his shoulders to the back of his neck to hold him there.

"You do like it rough," Hatter rumbled affectionately. She sighed in exasperation **.** As her hands tugged at his hair, the meaning became very clear: _You talk too much_. He was still chuckling as he let his fingers wander down to the edge of her skirt.

_Oh she was going to kill him for this._

Following his lead, they shifted away from the door as Alice became more willing to go along with the now resumed game. When her hands went to his belt however, Hatter shoved them away. He also kept her from unbuttoning his shirt. Instead, he gripped her hips tightly against his, and walked her backwards until their legs met the bench. He pressed her down onto the soft seat so that her head was still near the door. He kept one hand braced on the seat so that he could lean over her. Alice opened her eyes and swallowed nervously, hearing the faint sound of people walking just outside their private box. Hatter's head lifted from where he had been nibbling on her neck and Alice met his eyes. Her eyes widened as she read the devilish glint in his gaze. She knew that look.

"Don't...you...dare!"

"Don't dare what?" he innocently asked as he slipped to his knees, his mouth brushing her stomach. Alice squeaked, and he gave her hip a gentle pinch. "Remember the rules of the game, luv. Shush."

Alice groaned as she dropped her head against the back of the seat.

"I swear to... Hatter!" He had resumed nipping at her thigh. "God!"

He chuckled again, the sound warning her that he had no intention of stopping. "I'm glad you think so, luv."

"Arrogant Wonderlander," she reiterated, her affection taking the sting from the words.

"And you love every inch of me." He leaned up and brushed his lips across hers. "Now will you please follow the rules of the game? It is so hard to keep my focus already."

Alice was ready to make a sarcastic comment but his lips covered hers suddenly and fiercely, the impact knocking the wind out of her lungs instantly. Hatter often said that the best way to keep her quiet was to kiss her, and she wasn't about to argue with that logic. Biting into her lower lip, Hatter tugged, and she opened her mouth willingly, biting back the moan she wanted to give as he traced over the edge of her teeth. Alice closed her mouth slightly, and raked her teeth against his tongue, feeling him jerk in response.

Lost in his kiss, she was caught unaware as the sudden feel of his fingers inched beneath the waistband of her leggings, causing Alice to gasp. As determined as she was to beat this 'game' of his, it was proving to be difficult. All she wanted to do was moan, grab his hand and put it exactly where she knew it should go.

Since he hadn't said a thing about her moving, Alice grabbed his hand, and pressed it up hard against her through her leggings. He grinned into their kiss before he wrapped his other hand in her hair and tugged, tipping her head back forcefully. Alice stared blindly up at the luggage racks above them, her breathing fast and shallow. Hatter's tongue slid along the ridge of her neck, drawing tiny hot patterns before he breathed out over them. Her skin felt like it was prickling in response. He was still pressing her into the seat, frustrating her desire to shift her hips up to his teasing hand, and she tugged on it to try to get him to stop the exquisite torture he was enjoying.

Hatter knew, after much practice, just what buttons to push to drive her insane and just what would drive her over the edge. So he was holding off, forcing her to lie back and enjoy the foreplay he was intent on giving her. He could feel every inch of her coiling beneath his hands and his mouth; feel the heat starting to emanate from both of them. Still tonguing her collarbone, he yanked her leggings and panties down as far as he could and pressed up between her legs. Alice's head dipped down and she kissed at his ear, sometimes missing whenever he shifted.

Hatter dropped to his knees again and sat back a bit to watch the way she was mindlessly shifting her hips up to follow the contact. Her eyes snapped open suddenly; she had just realized that he had stopped touching her. Alice and Hatter stared at one another for a moment, her eyes showing her frustration whereas he said everything with a cocksure arch of his eyebrow. Still maintaining the eye contact, she unbuttoned her own blouse, and eased the fabric aside carelessly. He watched as she flicked her tongue across her lips impatiently as her eyes traveled over his body with hot thoroughness that let him know just what she was thinking. Grinning smugly, he trailed his hand up her now bare thigh, tracing over her wetness lightly. The contact was not close enough to do what she clearly wanted, and he almost had her whimpering. However, she was going to play his game; Alice snapped her jaw shut, and ground her teeth together to show her frustration. He started to chuckle, but thought better of it when she gave him a look that could have burned him.

_Yep, he had definitely toyed with her for too long._

Leaning forward, Hatter let his mouth wander over the tip of her breast while his fingers began to stroke the wet heat between her legs harder. He could feel the way she was responding to him, and with a faint grin against her breast, he began to nip and rub harder and harder. Knowing her as well as he did, Hatter didn't cease the pressure or the friction. He could feel the way her body was rising and falling against his, matching the rhythm of his fingers.

Alice pressed her cheek against the seat with her eyes squeezed shut tightly. The urge to scream was building in her throat as all of her senses were on fire. The soft sound of Hatter's mouth suckling on her breast filled the tiny boxcar, the rasp of her own breathing almost overpowering in her ears. Shifting her legs as far apart as they could go, Alice dropped one hand down to clench Hatter's shoulder tightly. The pressure of her nails squeezing into his shoulder was meant as a warning.

Outside their car, she could just hear the sound of people walking by on their way to the lunch car. Then there was a woman talking loudly just outside their door. Alice's eyes flew open when she recognized the trolley woman's voice. Tugging on Hatter's shoulder desperately, Alice tried not to let her arousal increase at the thought of being caught. It was too intoxicating though and she let his shoulder go to hold his head to her breast, feeling the grate of his teeth scraping along her nipple. Her entire body suddenly felt alive and tense.

Desperate not to cry out, especially since the trolley could be heard just outside their door again, Alice lifted her hand to her mouth and pressed her teeth into the heel of it. Hatter's fingers twirled around her clit hard at the same time he bit into her nipple, knowing how far over the edge it would send her. Jerking her hips up to his hand, Alice sank her teeth in sharply, the taste blood permeating her mouth. Her entire body fell over the edge in a blissful freefall as Hatter's fingers slowed a bit, drawing out her orgasm so that the aftershocks lessened only slightly. Resisting the urge to cry out for him to stop, Alice simply continued to rock her hips with his hand, and breathed in and out sharply.

Hatter released her nipple, now dark red from his attention, and leaned up to plant a gentle kiss on the corner of her mouth. He nudged her hand aside with his nose to continue the kiss fully on her mouth, his tongue sweeping gently across her lips. Alice's head turned into his kiss, her now injured hand lifting to dig into his dark hair. When his fingers continued to caress her moist heat, Alice clenched her thighs together to stop him; the unspoken signal warned him that she was too sensitive for him to continue. He grinned against her lips, his forehead resting against hers.

Alice eyed him. "You could... you know."

Hatter shook his head. "I'll be fine. You needed that more than me. The tension in you was killin' me."

He grinned at her and Alice rolled her eyes, knowing that he was right. But in typical Hatter fashion, rather than give her a massage or talk to her about her troubles, he had resorted to seduction. Not that she was complaining.

At the ache in her hand Alice moved it to her line of vision, and stared at the angry bite mark imprinted there. Hatter turned her palm over and kissed it, grinning at her.

"I guess I won." Alice declared lightly, to which he shrugged.

"You always did hate to lose." He didn't expand on his meaning. Instead, he simply sat up beside her with slight discomfort. Alice eyed his groin, and then looked at him.

"The offer is still good." Even as she said it, she was stifling a yawn. It hadn't even been their usual fiery love making, yet it still had tired her out. The release of tension let her know just how wearing it had been on her to carry all that invisible guilt and worry around. Hatter chuckled, and simply put his arm around her shoulders.

"Get some sleep, luv. I'll make sure you pay me back later," he offered and she gave him a sleepy grin.

"You can count on it."


	8. Gnat Blind

It took the train well over a day to pass through the Underground Lake Tunnels, which according to the conductor was making record time. Once through the dark and twisted tunnels, the train then began an awkward climb up an almost vertical track line. Due to the dangerous shift in balance, everyone was asked to remain in their seats. Ironically, confinement to their cabins didn't cause a lapse in complaints, even from the travelers who had gone this route before. Despite each cabin being separated by glass and wood, the grouchy passenger's shouts echoed loudly from train car to train car. Once level, the train resumed its neck-breaking speed across the twisty tracks. However, in spite of its resumed speed, the conductor warned over the PA system that they were still several hours away from their destination. The train was not going to stop until it reached the capital of South Wonderland: Far South Central Metropolis... a mouthful for the conductor to say but there was no way around the typical longwinded names of Wonderland cities.

Knowing just how long they were going to be stuck on the train made it easier for Alice to cajole Hatter into going to the dining car for her again. He had already complained good-naturedly about going there earlier. However, by the third request, his curious looks informed her that he thought something was up. Before he could voice his opinion on her over active appetite, her stomach made a loud growl, shifting his mood from suspicious to amused. He had teased her that with the amount of tea biscuits she had eaten she'd soon be the size of a walrus, albeit an attractive one. That had earned him a murderous glare. In response, he had hot-tailed it through the doorway, promising to bring her back a hot supper.

"Sensitive Oyster," was the last thing that Alice heard him mutter before he closed the cab door again. She simply smiled, knowing better than to take offence to that, and settled back on the plush seat. Closing her eyes, Alice tried to will away the queasiness that had hold of her stomach like a vice. The wild rollercoaster ride on the train hadn't helped. In fact, she had spent much of that time with her head between her knees. Hatter, annoyingly, had apparently enjoyed it. It was a Wonderlander thing, he had explained and Alice hadn't been about to argue with him. From building cities high up in the air and flying mechanical flamingos above a deep lake, Wonderlanders did love their strangeness. She could believe that they'd like something so frantic. Or love it, judging by Hatter's wild grin and excited chatter. His comment of 'Let's go again' had definitely not been sarcastic.

Alice felt cramped from the long journey, but as zapped as she felt she didn't think she could sleep anymore. Nor scrounge up enough energy for more of Hatter's 'games'. The 'game' had certainly helped her sleep, but she knew Hatter was waiting for her to pounce on him in retaliation. But judging by the queasiness still rocking her insides, Alice doubted that she'd be up for such activity for a while yet.

Alice was just beginning to overcome her stomach's turning when the cab door suddenly squeaked open, allowing the sound of loud wandering passengers to be heard. The loud cough that broke through the crowd's noise caused her to jump nervously. She stared in suspicion as the coughing culprit cautiously poked his head through the door, and eyed her up and down in a strangely dodgy way. He was a thin man, with sunken-in cheeks and heavy bags under his eyes. His craggy face reflected exhaustion, and though his clothes were stained from dust and mud she noted that he was in fact finely dressed. Alice clenched her hands into fists, still on the alert. She had been in Wonderland long enough to know that no one was exactly who they appeared to be. She was nervous about being on this train in the first place, and beyond the trolley lady, they hadn't seen any strangers who had had the nerve to knock on their door much less walk in uninvited.

The man slightly bowed his head in respect. "Pardon, miss. Mind if I join you for a few minutes? My cab mate is snorin' like a jabberwocky, and I won't disgust you by telling you just how much he drools," he explained, causing Alice to give a shaky smile. He didn't bother to wait for her to actually answer. Instead, he simply dropped onto the bench seat across from her. Alice chewed on her lower lip, knowing from experience that she should try to get him to leave, but she was unsure on how to do it without drawing extra unwanted attention.

"I suppose," she cleared her throat to cover her discomfort while eyeing Hatter's discarded jacket, still lying on the bench close to her. He had removed his gun holster before he had left, and she wondered if she could discreetly get hold of it without him noticing. The man across from her didn't notice her discomfort or her hesitation. Instead, he sighed in relief while closing his eyes, and it was as if her silence was blissful to him. "I tell you, if only I could get a Father William clause in my line of work."

"Father William…clause?" Alice, fighting her unease, asked more in confusion rather than for lack anything better to say. She inched her hand along the bench towards Hatter's coat, jerking it back to her lap as the man cleared his throat noisily. His eyes slid open, and he quirked a bushy eyebrow.

"Never heard of it? Makes you rather sheltered, I'd guess?" he observed. Alice shrugged, not sure if he meant it as an insult or not. "Father William Clause. Means if I find an apprentice or have a son who can carry on for me, I can leave my work, and they can take over it completely. Never a worry again. I earn a share of their wages, and a share of the wages of any apprentices they get. And so on and so forth."

"Sounds like a pyramid scheme," Alice muttered, thinking about some of the businesses in her world. The man gave her a look, and she smiled as charmingly as she could. "Nevermind. What do you do?"

"I peddle in the exceptional," he began, his voice lowering as if he was about to reveal something exciting. Surprisingly, Alice found herself leaning a bit forward in anticipation. In Wonderland, claiming something was exceptional was almost the equivalent of claiming to have found the Holy Grail. Such an open boast would likely have a good story behind it. He had perked her curiosity, but instead of a story, she was met with silence and a vague stare as he crossed his legs. She gave him a puzzled frown before sitting back in her seat. Suddenly, as if the silence had dragged on too long, he flipped a hand in the air and waved it back and forth. "Bread n' Butter works really. Something substantial that has a slathering of the inconsequential. You don't really need the one to have the other."

Alice was used to Wonderland word-games but she still had to shake her head. "Sorry, you lost me at Bread n' Butter."

"Must be a servant or a regular civilian then," the man summed her up sympathetically. Alice bristled at his inaccurate assumption. He read the insulted expression on her face and he cleared his throat before pasting on a smile. "I don't mean it as an offence."

"How do you mean it then?" Alice asked, tapping her toe meaningfully. Her retaliation towards his comment caused him to give a nervous laugh as he removed his gloves one by one. The jerking motion betraying that her annoyance had in fact affected him. He began to slap them against his knee rhythmically.

"Just... you seemed lost from the moment we spoke," he explained and Alice arched a brow.

"It wasn't that I was lost. I'm just not interested in word-games," she commented dryly.

He grinned. "You don't like to turn a phrase?"

"I live with a man who does it without thinking and often rambles with it. I think having one of us like that is more than enough for my sanity," she admitted grudgingly, giving him a cool smile. From what she could tell, he meant her no harm and Alice didn't feel up to staying annoyed with a perfect stranger just because she was feeling edgy.

"Pretty girl like you shouldn't be travelling alone. He's your cabin mate then?" the man asked her, the question put casually. But she had learned through a strange sort of osmosis that people never asked simple questions in Wonderland. The exception of course was Charlie; his were almost always innocent and touchingly naive. Alice kept her expression as neutral as possible, not wanting to reveal too much.

"Yeah, you could say that."

"Good thing. The South isn't the sort of place for a haphazard vacation or honeymoon. Right bit dangerous but not without its charms," he warned as he held out his hand, not disguising the tremor he had. "Master Nitze. I work in the South almost exclusively."

Alice gingerly shook his icy hand, working her brain quickly and knowing she needed a fake name. She smiled, and gave him the first name that came to mind, "Carol."

He gave her a sidelong look that meant she might have taken too long to respond. "So, Carol. Travel in the South eh? Not really something I'd expect from a City Dweller. Lived in the City long?" Nitze asked her and she shrugged.

"As long as I've been in Wonderland," she responded lightly. It wasn't technically a lie.

"Word of advice? Avoid the deep south unless you got a guide. I got lost there once while traveling to the retreats... that was a good six months trying to find my way back. Acquired a taste for beetle brains that was far too unhealthy." He gave an exaggerated roll of his eyes and Alice smiled.

"We are only visiting the Metropolis, trying to find some friends." Still not a total lie, Alice thought. Maybe she had learned more from Hatter than she had previously thought.

"Now that'll be tricky. The Metro isn't as vast as the Capital, but it is nothin' to sneeze at. The back alleys are a labyrinth on their own and filled with un-savories. Not counting the really terrible paths that lead into the Wilds." He saw Alice's face pale a bit, and then sighed in reproach to himself. "Hope your friends aren't there," Nitze offered, giving her a sympathetic smile that would have been genuine if he would have tried to look her in the eye and not everywhere else. His eyes were darting around the room as if he was expecting the very furniture to attack him.

"I hope they aren't either," Alice agreed. Her thoughts went back to Hatter and how he had tried to reassure her that the South wasn't **that** terrible.

Suddenly, as though thinking of him had somehow conjured his presence, the door to their cab suddenly opened. This time it was Hatter backing in slowly, carrying a tea tray while muttering about crowds and the lack of good manners at tea time. Nearly dropping the tea tray, he shoved the door shut with his shoulder. He looked adorably ridiculous doing so, and Alice bit back a grin as he turned slowly on his heels. He was being so careful to keep his balance that she didn't dare say anything to distract him.

"All right, not much was left. The rush was on and let me say that those people act like vultures. It's terrifyin'!" Hatter exclaimed, having to tilt the tray back to keep the small cups from falling forward. Nitze looked up the minute Hatter spoke, and stared at him with an open mouth, his eyes widening. Hatter, lifting his head so that he could give Alice a glare for sending him out into the crowds, saw Nitze and gave him an equally astonished look. Unconsciously, his hands tightened on the tray.

"Hatter, this is Nitze," Alice began, but before she could finish the introductions, the cab erupted into chaos. Faster than she could blink Nitze was on his feet, flying past Hatter. He paused long enough to grab the tray from hatter, shoving it up in the air to distract him. Hatter went skittering back onto the bench, giving Nitze time to get through the door. Alice could only stare, stupefied, as Hatter regained his footing before clambering after Nitze. She was too shocked to move for a moment, staring with a slack jaw as food particles and spilt tea dripped from every crevice of the doorframe.

Now where had that come from?

Pulling herself out of her stupor, Alice finally got to her feet and sprang for the door, swinging around it into the aisle. The tiny hall was packed with people making their way to and fro from the dining car. Most of them were cursing and staring over their shoulders back to the left. Whirling around, she tried to catch a glimpse of anything that could show Hatter or Nitze's direction. Then she saw the tails of Hatter's jacket flapping around a corner. She sprinted towards his direction, shoving people away as gently as she could. She could hear an array of colorful Wonderland curses being volleyed towards her from disgruntled passengers.

It was tricky running from train car to train car. The aisles were barely wide enough for two people to get through, and with the constant rocking of the train Alice was sent careening around corners. She had to grab hold of railings as she went, narrowly dodging people whom had already been thrown to one side. The sliding doors between the train cars were buzzing loudly, and Alice just barely made it through before it zipped closed. They had run into one of the baggage cars, which had boxes lining the shelves and luggage stacked in the centre. The car was poorly lit causing her to squint in the darkness, wondering if maybe she had been wrong.

There was a crash of boxes falling near the rear of the car, and Alice had to worm her way through the cramped aisles to get to the source of the crash. She tripped over a few boxes, barely catching herself from landing onto a box marked 'treacle tarts'.

"Bloody hell, will you just hold still!" Hatter shouted. Alice followed the sound of his voice pulled herself through the boxes. She ducked to avoid Nitze's flailing arms, pressing herself back against the wall near the emergency exit.

Hatter and the thin man were struggling fiercely; Hatter trying to subdue Nitze, and Nitze trying to break free. Alice barely dodged them as they both went swinging around again, sending luggage and boxes flying. Hatter was simply trying to hold him still, but in doing so he suffered a few punches for his trouble. Nitze was shouting harsh curses at the younger man, but Hatter had hold of his shoulder with his right hand. Finally growing frustrated, Hatter squeezed harder and watched as Nitze crumpled to his knees. The sound of bone being crushed permeated the air as Nitze's cursing turned to whimpering. Hatter had reached his boiling point it seemed. Alice chewed on her lower lip, ready to speak up to get Hatter to stop.

"Right, you gonna stay still?" Hatter demanded. Nitze glared at him, his lip still trembling. He was trying to hold in his whimpers so as to maintain a defiant persona.

"Not on your life," Nitze spat, and Hatter shifted his grip to the front of Nitze's jacket, hauling him up and pinning him to the wall.

"Now how is this for a bit of luck? I didn't think to see you until we hit the Metropolis." Hatter quickly patted down Nitze's sides. He frowned in confusion when he didn't find any weapons. That hadn't been what he was expecting and he put one of his hands on Nitze's newly injured shoulder.

"Here I was thinking you were dead, Hatter," Nitze growled and Alice flicked her eyes from one to the other.

"You know each other?"

"Unfortunately," Nitze grumbled and Hatter looked over his shoulder at Alice.

"Alice, meet our source for information, the Gnat." Hatter then looked back at the other man. "Gnat is a code name but one he is best known for. Gnat, this is Alice."

He gave Nitze a grin and warning flex of his hand on his shoulder.

"Say hello, will you?"

"Hello, Alice," the Gnat grumbled and his eyes met Hatter's again, clearly seeing Alice as unimportant. "The Resistance black-listed you a while back. Then I heard you had actually gone bonkers, even befriending the current King. How're you still alive?"

"Magic," Hatter jibed, his eyes widening comically as he made a face. Nitze ground his teeth together, and Alice watched as his body seemed to shimmer. Hatter's grip didn't lessen, but he raised his other hand and slapped the man across his cheek. "Oi! None of that! I was warned about you."

"Magic," Nitze scoffed. "You know nothing of magic, Hatter."

"On that, I think she and I both beg to differ," Hatter responded, nodding his head at Alice. "What you doin' on the south bound train, Gnat? Dodo had you banned from staying in the city as I recall. He didn't like you playing all sides."

"He hated it when you did that as well," Nitze pointed out, eyeing Alice as she looked between both men curiously.

"We worked together," Hatter explained to Alice, feeling her unspoken questions. "Nitze or 'Gnat' here just took our double-dealin' to the extreme."

"And you went to work with another sector all together. Judging by the grip on that right hand, you've still been operating your side of things." The veins in Nitze's arms seemed to be pulsing, and his facial bones were bulging against his skin. It was strange to see, yet Hatter continued to hold him still as best as he could.

"You got a reason for trackin' me down?" Nitze asked. Even his voice was starting to change at an irritating higher pitch.

"You have information I need," Hatter answered, and Nitze sneered at him. Hatter put his arm across Nitze's bony chest to hold him still. He didn't dare risk Nitze having the opportunity to shape-shift, but the way he was squirming in Hatter's grasp certainly made it difficult. Alice stood just behind him, watching as the Gnat's face seemed to distort and change color.

"We just need to ask you some questions, that's all," Alice said over the sound of his grinding bones. Nitze stopped his struggling just long enough to shoot her a dirty look.

"Right. And the minute I say something of importance, you get Scruffy here to cut my throat," he snapped, eyes darting from her to Hatter. His fear was obvious, but so was his anger. "I've been involved in enough politics to know the value of my gossip. To know what happens when I give it up."

Alice stared. "We're not here to kill you."

"Oh? Then why do you have this one helping you?" he demanded, spitting it out as if even acknowledging Hatter was distasteful. Hatter eyed him with equal disdain. Nitze sneered at him. "What? Did you think I'd forget? It has been quite a few years but my memory isn't that addled. Changed duties, have we?"

Alice saw Hatter's hand tighten into a fist on the Gnat's green coat. "Hatter, what is he talking about?"

"Not now, Alice," Hatter snapped. Nitze was starting to shift again. And even under Hatter's tight grip, it was getting harder and harder to keep him still. Alice didn't seem to notice, putting her hand on Hatter's shoulder.

"But..."

"Not now!" Hatter shouted just as the Gnat's body exploded in a shower of light and cold wind. It sent Hatter flying backwards. Alice clung to the railing as the train cabin lost the entire wall that Nitze had been pinned against. The explosion rocked the train car so hard that for a moment it only ran on two wheels. Hatter and Alice barely had time to cling to the sides to keep themselves from falling through the new hole. After the car rocked back onto all its wheels, Alice pulled herself from the railing, staring in shock at the missing side. Suddenly, a tiny insect buzzed just before Alice's nose. It hummed furiously before flying off away from the train. The explosion had allowed Nitze the chance to change shapes, and escape from Hatter's grasp.

The train suddenly screeched to a halt, and Alice slammed into Hatter as gravity yanked her forward. He caught her and helped her get a good grip on the remaining railing. The train cars slammed into one another with bone-jarring force. The loud screeching of the brakes was enough to make Alice's ears ring. There were loud screams from the crowd in the other cars as the train finally came to a stop.

Hatter was panting for breath, his face dotted with beads of sweat from his previous run. He kept flexing his left hand, the still healing scratch from the explosion at the Looking Glass having been reopened by this blast. He could feel a sliver of something still there and it distracted him for a moment before he realized that something else was different. The explosion must have blown off his hat for it was missing. Not for long though, for after running a hand through his wild hair, Hatter let go of Alice to retrieve the valued treasure from the ground. Dusting it off with a disgusted sniff he placed his hat back where it belonged.

"I think I ruin more good hats on adventures like this," He complained and Alice recovered her equilibrium enough to give a suitable glare.

"So that was who we're supposed to be going after? The man who might know where my mom is?" Alice demanded and he shrugged pathetically.

"He should know."

"You don't think a more... diplomatic approach might have been better?" Alice asked, and he gave her sidelong look. "For example, you could have just asked him nicely or offered to pay him or something!"

Hatter's look turned into a full glare. "Bit hard to do when he's changing shapes and tryin' to give me a good punch to the head. What was I thinkin' really!" he thought aloud, his sarcasm dripping from his words. Alice huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Hatter, that little escapade has just set us back! Not to mention that half the cab is now…gone!" Alice emphasized just how gone it was when her arms motioned to the empty air.

"Set us back?" Hatter sounded incredulous as he turned toward her fully. He looked as frustrated as she felt. "Now you just listen here!"

He didn't get to finish what most likely would have been a long winded rant, for the conductor suddenly burst through the door. Both Alice and Hatter forgot their momentary anger with one another to face him. He stared at the scene gravely, his moustache twitching as he sniffed the smoke-ridden air. The only open signs of his temper were the ways his hands clenched into fists and his lips firmed into a thin , he flipped open his pocket watch and calculated the amount of time this sudden stop had cost them.

Alice, bracing her self for a fight, wondered why he didn't just start screaming at them right away. Instead, he was letting their tension build by keeping silent. Without thinking about it, she backed warily just behind Hatter's shoulder.

The conductor was well aware of the effect of his silence. Having been trained and drilled to be ready for such incredibly devastating events, he was not about to lose the touted cool manner of conductors. Though it was very very tempting. His icy look swept over Hatter and Alice and even Hatter was cowed by that look. Had he raged at them from the get-go, Hatter could have dealt with it. But this cold furious silence made him uneasy. Especially since they were very vulnerable and at his mercy to travel.

The conductor looked over his watch as if it occupied his time, well aware that his silence was unsettling them. In his head, he recited all the rhymes he could to maintain his cool. As angry as he was, if he panicked and raged around then there was a likelihood that the entire train would riot in their fear.

As if coming to a conclusion, he sighed again and put the watch back into his coat. Clearing his throat, the conductor never once wavered from his refined expression as he met Hatter's wary gaze. The younger man was clearly anticipating his anger and the conductor gave him a glare that spoke volumes. "You do realize, that due to this setback and the circumstances, I will have to ask you both to leave the train immediately?"

Alice opened her mouth to argue, but Hatter looped his arm around her waist while pressing his other hand to her mouth,

"O' Course."

Unlike Alice, Hatter knew that the conductor could have any number of police or Suits down on their heads in a moment.

"Good. Collect your things, your cargo, and you get off at Port Town."

Minutes later, Hatter and Alice stood under a shelter of trees by the train tracks, watching as the long train started back up again. It chugged and heaved as car after car went by. Finally, after the last car passed them, Hatter rested his arm across Guinevere's chestnut neck, and rubbed her ears thoughtfully. They were lucky that the conductor had let them get the horses and what few supplies they had brought with them out of the cargo car. He would have preferred that the Cheshire Cat stayed on the train never to be seen again, but he had been left with them by a very business like assistant. Now the Cat sat primly on Arthur's saddle, cleaning its whiskers meticulously.

Hatter and Alice could both see the faded signs still propped in the ground, ones pointing to various directions and towns. "Port Town" was the nearest at four miles away, and if they followed the train tracks there was no chance of getting lost. The other towns were further away according to the signs so it left them little choice as to where to go. Still, four miles on horseback was going to take far longer than going by train and the thought of it had made their moods blacken further. Hatter and Alice hadn't spoken since the Conductor had thrown them off, and neither was willing to break the silence. Hatter hadn't liked to be the butt of her accusations while Alice was frustrated with his way of dealing with things.

Their silence was what made the sudden cultured voice all the louder and more intrusive.

"Well," Chesh commented in a gravely voice, "now **this** is certainly a fine turn of events, wouldn't you both agree?"

In comical unison, they both turned to stare at the smug looking tabby before looking at one another. Apparently, things could get much stranger. Pleased with himself, the cat began to grin widely until the corners of his 'lips' nearly met his ears.

* * *

Jack stared down the path leading deeper into the Wabe Forest, and thought for the hundredth time that this might be a trap. He and his men had divided into smaller groups, each searching for a trail that had more than likely gone cold. The idea of a trap was almost ludicrous though; who would attack the King when he was still surrounded by well over twenty well trained soldiers?

Ludicrous or not, Jack was on the alert for any signs of danger.

Wabe itself was oddly quiet. They had traveled east through the roads, following a barely warm trail left by his son's kidnappers. Despite how dangerous the forest could be, there had been almost no signs of Jabberwocks or tusked toths. Not even the far more common borogroves could be found wandering about. It was as if the forest had been plunged into silence, and even the animals were not about to disturb it.

This conundrum hadn't helped Jack's confidence at all. It was making him second-guess every turn he took. His fear for his son deepened every time his men would return with no reports and no further ideas as to where the trail led. Now it felt like the days were passing too quickly and Jack felt as if his hope for finding his son was starting to wear itself out. There was certainly no reason for him to be hopeful. The signs of destroyed brush and hoof-prints were gone. As if someone had wiped the tracks clean, leaving only pristine sand and grass behind.

Jack leaned over in his saddle and frowned down at the clear road. Come to think of it, he was almost certain that they had been through this area before. The trees were all leaning the same way. Even some of the flowers lining the side were the same color. Looking closely, he could see that there were horse tracks reflecting the same style of the Royal Calvary.

"Damn it!" he swore aloud, slamming his hand into the pommel of his saddle. His horse pinned its ears in response, and Jack quickly rubbed its neck to keep it calm. Doing so calmed him down as well. He sighed, throwing a leg over the pommel and resting it there. To his men he was a picture of an unconcerned monarch, but to those that were close to him, he was beyond livid and beyond frightened.

All of his resources… Hell, all of the best Royal trackers in Wonderland were coming to dead ends again and again. What use was it if all the security in world couldn't protect or find what was most important to you?

Jack had the feeling he had failed before he had even begun, and that was an unacceptable feeling to him. His son was at stake and he had promised Amelia he would find him no matter the cost. Wonderland was vast, and much if it was wild, leaving a rather large portion of land for the kidnappers to forge a home. If they were clever, they'd stick close to civilization. Jack only hoped that they weren't being led into a trap that would end up hurting his son.

"Sire," one of the attending Clubs had come beside his horse, "we've found more tracks near the River."

Jack frowned and glanced at the tall, lanky Club. "The River?" He rubbed at his face. "Which means they are leading us in circles."

"The Ferry barge is running now. Perhaps the Mouse family would have noticed if anything strange has been seen in the forest." The Club held up his tablet and papers. "We do have legal right to confiscate their barge and to..."

"I highly doubt that Toby Mouse has anything to do with this. The man can barely tolerate anyone is a legitimate customer, and he is hardly a criminal mastermind," Jack pointed out. Wiping his forehead again to get rid of the cold sweat, he looked up at the sun. "Already heading into midday. I'm wondering if we need something more extreme to flush these kidnappers out."

The Club frowned. "How do you mean?"

Jack didn't answer, suddenly turning his horse to the path to the River. His brain was already piecing together a plan that would likely be far more dangerous than simply following this confusing trail into the forest.

Staring intently down the road, Jack missed the sudden rustling of brush to his left as a fat white haired man peered out at the group passing by. It was as if he was invisible and none of the Guard noticed him either. Grinning widely, he quickly hopped back into the brush and disappeared the way he had come.

* * *


	9. Wild Card Deuce

If there was a possible counterpart to Port Town in Alice's world, it would be one of the old pirate ports she'd see in picture books and movie. The docks were roughly constructed and lined with barges that looked as decayed as the railings that they were tied to. Merchants lined the side streets leading to the water, each shouting out their wares and prices with overlapping words and offers. There was a morning crowd already, a sort of hodgepodge of well-to do and poor alike... just judging by their clothing. The marketplace was something similar to an auction block it seemed, with a center podium where a merchant would hold up a bundle of their wares and get bids on it.

"Four eights!"

"Six twelves!"

"Plain cheatin' you are! Deuce and a queen!"

Alice blinked in confusion as she tugged Arthur after her, the horse shying at the bustling crowd. The frenzied shouting was made stranger by the people who were bidding, each holding up different playing cards and waving them wildly at the auction block. The current merchant was holding up a tiny borogrove by one of its rear legs, ignoring its screeching wail as he goaded the bidders into higher 'prices'. From what Alice could see, he was trying to find the cards with the best value the way a poker dealer might.

"Currency is different here?" she asked Hatter. They had finally started speaking during the long walk from the train stop. She had caved first; Alice knew that it was better to put it from her mind if they were to have a peaceful journey.

He looked over his shoulder at her. "They go by Card Values here. In the City Capital, we go by inches, as you know, or trade values. Here, it is actual cards. Never understood why."

Guinevere was following him obediently without him holding her, the chestnut mare turning her head this way and that to take in the busy crowds. Alice looked back and saw Chesh still curled up on her saddle, watching the people with a fiendish grin that was too cunning for a normal cat. Learning that the Cat could talk had actually increased their distrust of him but Alice wondered if he was doing it just to irritate them. He only spoke occasionally, usually to rib Hatter, and there was no question in Alice's mind that he was going to continue doing so for the rest of this 'trip'.

"Do you know the way through Port Town?" she asked the Cheshire, pulling Arthur to a stop so that she could look at him easier. The people who had been behind them grumbled at the hold up even as they moved around them. Apparently a stall in traffic wasn't going to hold anyone up in the streets. The Cat sat up on his haunches and yawned.

"I just may." He stretched and kneaded the seat of the saddle with wicked looking claws. "But then again, I may not."

Hatter had turned around, Guinevere still at his shoulder. "How many lives did Amelia say he had left? I'd be willing to find out if she forgot to mention it."

The Cat actually glared at him but gave in all the same. "It depends on where you want to go. Do we have a route or are you both just playing this by ear? Which, I might add, is terribly irresponsible for _all_ involved. Very irresponsible."

He slanted a sly look at Alice that made her fidget. It wasn't possible that he had guessed her possible condition, was it? Alice firmed her jaw and looked at Chesh defiantly.

"Do you know the way through the city? To the Metro Road?" Alice asked, aware that Hatter was giving Chesh an odd look.

"Are you sure that you want to leave? It is such a lovely place to visit. They have not a care in the world for Royalty or trickery. Just trade. A trade in information would be more useful, perhaps, than running around?" Chesh offered.

Hatter exhaled sharply, sounding annoyed once again.

"Do you know the way or not?" Alice insisted again and she fingered the charm bracelet Amelia had given her. The Cheshire noticed and immediately straightened up.

"Three blocks from here there is a main street that leads to the Wilds. It would be best to head through the streets, in plain view. That way there is little chance of being accosted in the dark alley." As if that was the end of that, Chesh began to clean his whiskers meticulously. Hatter rolled his eyes.

"Safety advice from a cat. This is getting worse and worse," Hatter grumbled and then looked at Alice. "I should see if any of my old contacts are around. At the very least to find out if anything unusual is happening."

"Will they deal with you, considering how the Gnat responded?" Alice asked, unwittingly sarcastic. Hatter simply looked at her and then shook his head. He felt guilty enough about that already. Yet he assumed that part of her sarcasm was due to her worry about her mother's disappearance and he was willing to ignore the tone of her voice.

"They'll deal with me all right."

There was a dark threat in his voice that Alice hadn't heard in a long time, the kind that sent a chill up her spine, and she stared at him. Behind her, the Cat stared at him as well and twitched his tail back and forth.

"Alice..." Hatter began and she looked up at him to see his eyes an absorbing dark brown. But before he could finish, there was a loud scream just behind them and they both turned to look along the docks. The crowds were in a panic and stampeding towards them, women dragging their children behind them as merchant carts were tossed left and right. Alice and Hatter exchanged confused looks but the reason for the panic could be felt. The ground was heaving up and down, the way a carpet would if it was being shaken out, and Alice grabbed hold of Arthur as the gelding began to panic.

"What in Wonderland?" Hatter shouted as a deep bass rumbling began, like thunder and drums all at once. Alice turned with Arthur, the leather reins burning through her fingers.

"It feels like an earthquake," she cried and he sent her a confused look. Alice couldn't take the time to explain as the stampede of people suddenly swarmed around them, jostling her this way and that. Arthur whinnied anxiously, still pulling at her hold. The ground's shaking and heaving didn't stop, which only increased the panic in the crowd around them. Hatter's hand suddenly grabbed around her elbow and hauled her to the side, pressing her up against one of the store windows. He had Guinevere's lead tight in his own hand and Arthur was nickering in a fretful way. The crowd was still panicking and the ground still heaving, while Alice pressed herself back against Hatter.

"This has never happened before," he muttered against the back of her head and Alice winced as the heaving ground pitched them tighter against the glass.

"It does happen in my world," she answered loudly over the rumbling sounds, "but never like this." This was something different in the way the ground moved like a rolling wave and the way the very earth itself seemed to groan in pain.

The crowd suddenly swelled around them and Alice felt Arthur's reins rip through her hands. Guinevere's own lead snapped in half from the force and Hatter made a vain grab at her bridle. The mare whinnied and the swarm seemed to force both horses into a spooked run down the dock. Chesh leapt from Arthur's saddle and across the backs of several of the crowd to land next to Alice. Hatter swore a blue streak and quickly pushed Alice ahead of himself into the building they were nearest to.

They stumbled in to the jingle of door chimes and Hatter pulled on her arm to keep her from going to her knees. Alice clutched hold of his arms and forced herself to stand, seeing his concern when she took longer than normal. Behind Hatter, the crowd was shouting back and forth, and there were even some screams of people being caught underfoot. Alice looked away from the horrible scene and clutched Hatter's other hand in concern as she looked up at him. Hatter's eyes went over her from head to toe to make certain she was okay before he let go of her arm.

"I'm going to go grab the horses. You stay here, out of trouble if you can manage it," he ordered, the jibe taking the sting out of his demand. Alice opened her mouth to argue but he suddenly ducked his head and kissed her on her surprised lips. She staggered into him but as quick as it had begun the kiss was broken. Alice swayed from the force of it and Hatter winked at her, the expression on his face somehow reassuring despite the insanity outside. With a final squeeze on her hand, he pushed her deeper into the store before shutting the door with a definitive snap.

On the verge of following him out, Alice made it to the door once more in time to see the crowd outside seem to swallow him up and he was gone. The building suddenly shook again, and Alice grabbed hold of the door frame to try to stay on her feet. "Okay, Alice," she said to herself, "maybe he has a point this time."

"Yes, let us stay away from almost certain death, if you please," Chesh commented from where he was prowling, having been forgotten in the rush. Alice was about to snap something back at him when the entire building shook and swayed as if it were about to collapse around her.

The tiny figurines that lined the shelves nearby shook violently and Alice left the door only to have to catch herself from falling into the shelves themselves. She was able to catch a tiny sheep figurine from crashing to the hardwood flooring and she heard the cat mutter something vulgar nearby. Chesh growled faintly in his throat before trotting off deeper into the store and leaving her alone near the entrance. Setting the figurine back in its proper place on the shelf, Alice took a moment to look around the shop she had been pushed into. There were all manner of oddly shaped and slanted shelves lined with a variety of knick knacks: figurines, knitting wares, chimes, tea cups. There was no obvious order to the chaos on the shelves and Alice had to duck as she went deeper into the shop to avoid the slanted ceilings that dropped low over her head. The chimes hanging bumped against her hair, letting out a faint whistling sound like a tea kettle on a stove.

Suddenly, Chesh came trotting back up and leapt onto Alice's shoulder with surprising ease. Without any hesitation, he curled around her neck and promptly faded from view though Alice could still feel his slight weight. At the same time, Alice could hear someone walking from the rear of the shop and she slid her hand to the side-bag she wore. It was heavy enough to possibly be a weapon.

Alice wondered, just briefly, if she was getting paranoid to think about hitting a possibly undeserving shop-keep. It certainly felt like she was acting suspiciously.

She forced herself to put her hand away from the bag and tried to act as nonchalant as possible by looking at some of the metal shelves nearby. They were stacked with small handheld mirrors with the sort of old frames that Alice would have expected to see in a fairy-tale: old woodwork of spirals and vines that gently bracketed the glimmering silver mirror face. Alice gingerly picked one up and turned it over in her hand, staring at her reflection in the mirror. There was nothing out of the ordinary from her normal reflection but she found herself drawn into the sight of her own face. The mirror suddenly glimmered and Alice stared as her hand seemed to glow, the mirror's surface rippling like water. The glow spread from her fingertips to circle the mirror frame, causing the burnished copper to glow a brilliant amber. Her hand ached from it and Alice winced, transferring the mirror to her other hand.

The face of the small mirror distorted slowly and another woman's face replaced hers in a slow morph that entranced her. For a moment, Alice thought it was her mother but then had to correct herself as the reflection took on further shape and detail. The woman staring at her had short silvery hair cropped close to her skull and she was hauntingly beautiful with the most incredible emerald green eyes Alice had ever seen. The woman stared back at an almost hypnotized Alice and gave her a sad frown that spoke of a long suffered exhaustion. Her eyes shut to slits and she lifted a hand to touch the mirror surface from her side. Alice copied the action and touched the surface with one of her fingertips. She tilted the mirror slightly, watching as the woman in the mirror seemed to say Alice's name.

All at once, another woman appeared in the mirror's reflection and Alice snapped out of her trance. This woman's reflection was far more real seeming and the presence at her back was no ghost. Her glow disappeared immediately and she turned around sharply on her heel, clutching the mirror to her chest defensively.

The woman standing behind her gave her an amused look. "Something wrong, child?"

Alice managed to give her a polite smile. "No!... No. Sorry, I was just browsing."

"Certainly," the woman allowed and began to walk around to the other side of the shelves. She looked at Alice through the space between them. "But as a word of advice, I wouldn't suggest just browsing when it comes to Fragmented Looking Glasses. They tend to be rather... finicky in what they show. Not to mention very expensive."

Alice swallowed in reflex and put the mirror back in its place. "Where do they come from?"

"That particular brand is the old shards once discarded during the creation of **The** Looking Glass itself. Same batch of glass but strangely with no power. I sell about one a year. They are not everyone's fancy." The shopkeeper turned away from her and began to walk to the window. She had to stand on her tiptoes to see out the window. "I see that the panic has died down."

Alice followed her, ignoring Chesh's unhappy rumble against her neck.

"Your choice of safe haven was rather... silly," she continued and eyed Alice. "A disorder shop, as we call it, and full of glass. The way these walls were shakin," she made a tsk sound, "silly to shelter here."

"What is this place called?" Alice asked. Hatter had shoved her in so quickly that she had never bothered to check.

"Wool and Water Harbour Haven Shop of Intricate Delight and Mystery, which has been in my family for...oh, twenty or so years. I am its owner, Caryn Drawling." Alice blinked at the long winded title and the shopkeeper gave her a grin. "Most of my longer term customers call it Harbour Haven. Any sort of item that does not find a proper place in a regular store comes here and finds a home until the right person comes along to purchase it."

"Makes sense, all things considering," Alice muttered to herself. Caryn walked away from the window, leaving Alice to look anxiously down the street. Hatter was no where in sight even though the crowds were thinning out.

"A strange woman," Chesh's cultured voice whispered from close to her ear.

"Oh?" Alice asked.

"Did you actually look at her, girl? Or were you so distracted by your pretty reflection that your brain is still addled?" the Cat sniped. "She certainly doesn't _fit_ with these surroundings."

"Shh," Alice warned the invisible Cat and turned to see the woman sitting just behind a low counter. She was tapping a pair of knitting needles against the edge of the counter as she stared at an open picture book. Under the guise of looking at a small clock, Alice peeped at her from underneath her lashes. She was dressed in a Regency style of noblewoman's gown, her lower necked bodice accented by an amber charm necklace that shone against her pale skin. Her hair was pulled back into an elegant chignon, and from what Alice could see there were faint silver streaks intermingling with the rich auburn.

She looked too refined to be running a shop, Alice had to admit as she looked at the fine bone-structure and well-kept hands.

But when Caryn looked up and smiled warmly at her, Alice forgot herself and smiled back. There was a friendly familiarity to her that spoke of a well-versed saleswoman and it calmed Alice's suspicions. Chesh continued to mutter warnings against her ear and Alice discreetly reached up and pulled on his tail to shut him up. He hissed in her ear but wisely silenced himself as Alice approached the register.

"Do you like the shop?" Caryn asked. Her voice was eager, as if Alice's opinion honestly mattered, and Alice could only smile back just as warmly. She was one of those people who was instantly likeable and she had an infectious smile.

"It's different," Alice said, looking around the counter. There were more small figurines around the counter, mostly of sheep or pigs, and the old cash register dwarfed the petite woman behind the counter. Caryn picked up a candy jar and offered it to Alice. Not wanting to be rude, Alice plucked out a small mint and popped it into her mouth. Caryn gave her an approving look.

"You aren't really here to look at knick knacks. No one just chooses to come to Port Town. I wouldn't but sometimes I do need to come here to run things when my clerks are ill." Caryn was still tapping her knitting needles against the old wood and she tipped her head on the side as she looked at Alice. "Pretty girl like you should be going to the Metropolis."

"We were headed there but the Ouestern Train let us off here instead."

Caryn's amber brown eyes widened. "Ouestern Train never stops here. It runs a directly line to the South Metropolis and then out to the direct West side of Wonderland."

"Well, it did this time," Alice muttered, leaning on her elbows over the counter.

"Unfortunate." The older woman sighed. "I haven't taken that train in aeons. I much prefer going by hover-plane or horse." She gave Alice an incredibly direct look that read the younger woman's face with ease. "You look unhappy, child."

"I lost someone recently," Alice said honestly and Caryn's face closed up slightly.

"My apologies. I too know what it means to lose someone you love." Her eyes wandered over Alice. "Your husband?"

"My mom. She's missing," Alice admitted as she cracked the mint in her mouth. Almost immediately she clamped a hand over her mouth and spat the half-finished mint out. The inside of it had tasted like a sour apple and her easy honesty was, in retrospect, not normal and likely brought on by the mint. Alice looked at Caryn suspiciously.

"Those mints do react differently with everyone. I was hoping you'd tell me which item you actually wanted. Sometimes one never does truthfully tell a salesperson what they want through embarrassment." She looked at Alice sympathetically. "I have no designs on you, child. I think the last time I had a devious thought was when I mistakenly sold an old noblewoman an aphrodisiac. With rather hilarious results I must admit but that was my last time of being remotely devious with customers."

She paused and set her knitting needles on the counter. "What do they call you?"

"Alice." Still suspicious, she took a prudent step back from the counter.

"The Alice?" Caryn asked, her voice tinged with excitement. "The girl who helped save the City almost a year ago?"

Embarrassed and rather flattered by the woman's eagerness, Alice could only nod. Chesh growled in her ear, clearly thinking that the woman was up to no good. But Alice, from what she could tell, saw nothing evil in this woman. There was an open friendliness and a detached warmth that any good salesperson would have.

"Good, I am finally glad to meet you. That old White Queen had always been a bitch in life and hopefully she met a painful death," Caryn said with incredible venom. Her face changed, as if her bitterness had an actual taste and she hated it. Alice could say nothing to that comment. She had pitied the White Queen to a certain degree but she **had** been a heartless bitch.

"Do you mind me being here?" Alice asked as she looked at Caryn.

"The shop is quiet this time of year. We're coming up to Off Season, where time slows and no one wants a knick knack. Sad but terribly true." She smiled at Alice. "I'll be glad of your company."

"You often get earth quakes here?" Alice asked, still leaning on the counter. The other woman gave her a puzzled look and she gestured to the window. "The ground shaking?"

"That? No never. Wonder what is causing it. Likely isn't good news." She spoke in short, choppy sentences and shook her head. The entire shop shook violently again and Alice had to grab the counter edge tightly to keep herself from falling. Caryn's eyes squinted as she looked out the window, seeing the people still panicking in the streets. "It disturbs the flow in the shop, to have such wicked shaking."

There was a strange light in her eyes, one that Alice read as anger and she backed up a few steps warily. But then the light was gone and Caryn seemed to snap herself out of it. Giving Alice another smile, she reached beneath the counter and produced two small cups and a miniature coffee press.

"Since we're likely to be stuck here for a while yet, how about a nice hot cup of Lagfree Pinchcoffee and you can see some of my wares, hmm?" Caryn offered while she dragged a spare antique chair over to her side of the counter. It was on Alice's tongue to refuse since she knew that she needed to find Hatter soon. But the older woman contrived to look lonely and wistful and Alice found her resolve wearing down. What harm could a cup of coffee do?

Taking a seat on the old chair she was offered, Alice took one last look outside and hoped Hatter would be back soon.

* * *

Panic in Wonderland had several different extremes. Complete pandemonium, resigned fear, and frozen in shock were just three of those but Hatter was seeing all three in the docks. It did nothing to ease his own fears about what was going on but he was more determined than most to bury those fears. The dock workers had at first taken little notice of the terror around them but they were now racing to secure the ships against the rocking waves. The few he had spoken to had simply shoved him away in their rush and none of them could be brought to care that he was looking for two horses.

Hatter hadn't even caught a glimpse of the horses since they had been spooked.

Pausing in the middle of the street, Hatter took off his hat and swiped his hand across his brow. The people crowding around the streets shoved and jostled him roughly. He took no notice, running a hand through his hair impatiently and wondering where to start. He was given a particularly hard shove that let him know that people weren't about to be slowed by him standing there and he quickly flipped his hat back on.

He had just run his fingers over the brim when he heard a scream from behind him while the ground rumbled. Instinctively he jumped backward and onto a street-lamp post, holding onto it to avoid falling back into the crowd.

It was almost laughable to think that he had nearly been run over by a little old lady steering a steam-driven wagon. She waved her fist at him as she swung the wagon around the corner. The sight was comical enough and Hatter tipped his head on the side, momentarily struck speechless. The old woman kept driving and nearly collided with a fruit stand. Hatter shook his head to clear it and wondered just what was going on with Wonderland these days. Ignoring the angry shouts of people who he had shoved to one side and one of the nearby vendors who shouted at him to get down, Hatter pursed his lips. He wasn't likely to find Guinevere in the streets like this. People were too frantic and, though he had calmed his own fears down, Hatter didn't like the thought of running through streets that he didn't know.

He had to wait a few minutes for there to be relative quiet before he could think of what to do. The rumbling reduced itself to the occasional groan and heave but nowhere near as terrible as it had been just minutes earlier. Hatter kept his grip tight around the lamp post and leaned a bit further out.

"Nothin' to lose. Might still work," he muttered to himself. Shrugging, he lifted two fingers to his lips and let out a loud piercing whistle. He paused for a moment, letting the whistle echo through the streets, before he began shouting Guinevere's name.

There was an answering neigh from behind him and Hatter swivelled to see the chestnut mare barrelling through the crowd. She still had a wide-eyed look about her but she pinned her ears and galloped on. Not for the first time, Hatter thanked Charlie for training the horses to recognize their names. Arthur was just at her heels, as well trained as she, and they slid to a stop on the cobblestone street. Guinevere showed a rare display of spirit as she reared, throwing her head angrily as she pawed at the air. She was coated in white lather as was Arthur, the still panicking crowds spooking them further.

Hatter leapt down from the lamp post and quickly side-stepped the pawing hooves to get to the mare's side. Grabbing her by the bridle, Hatter held Guinevere as still as he could and stroked her soaked neck. "Easy, Guin," he whispered, feeling Arthur crowd close as well. They were comforted by a familiar presence and Hatter felt Arthur butt him hard with his head. Both horses were shaking and breathing hard but Hatter felt relieved that they had come back. He didn't want to think of losing either of them in this Port Town.

He was still stroking Guinevere to calm her when he felt something hard poke into his mid-back. The familiar feel of a gun muzzle made him groan and roll his eyes up to the sky. "What now?" he muttered to no one in particular.

"You must be real stupid to bring horses into Port Town," a gravely voice warned and Hatter frowned before turning around. The gun muzzle followed his motion so that it was poking into his chest and Hatter looked up from the sight of it to face his possible attacker. The man he faced was near his own age, with bright blue eyes and fine blue-black hair that was pushed back from his face. Despite the gun pressed into his chest, Hatter shook his head and gave him a half-hearted but wary smile. The man gave him an was an easy grin in return that spoke of their one-time friendship and Hatter put his hands to his sides.

"Pidge. It's been a very long time."

"Lifetime or so." Lowering the gun, Pidge grinned and then smacked his hand on Hatter's shoulder with surprising strength. He was a thin man, taller than Hatter by a good head and older by a few years. Hatter grinned back in relief when he read Pidge's obvious welcome in his eyes. They had a long-standing history together from when he had been running with the Resistance. Though some of it had been rather... tumultuous, they had never truly stopped being friends.

"Last I heard, you were in the City living the sort of life that made Dodo want to kill you. Then I get your notice about the Looking Glass and lo n' behold, you show up in Port Town like some sort of bad dream," Pidge said, holstering his gun. From what Hatter could see he was alone but knowing him as he did, Hatter didn't doubt that he had sharp shooters all around him. They may have been friends but Pidge wasn't going to take chances.

Which, honestly, was exactly how Hatter felt. He doubted that if their situations were reversed that he would have stopped holding a gun on Pidge.

"I need some help. The Gnat was in the City and I think he had somethin' to do with the Looking Glass exploding," Hatter explained and Pidge gave him a curious look. Neither was concerned with being overheard. Though the crowds had calmed down considerably, it was still safe to discuss such inane things in open view. If they had instead left immediately, neither doubted that they would have been picked up immediately by either Royal Spies or by the South's own secret police.

"You never once cared about the Looking Glass before. Why now?" Pidge asked. His eyes slid over Hatter from head to toe, noting the faint signs of domesticity in Hatter's manner. This man was certainly different than the care-free crook and fighter he had once been. "There's a girl involved eh? I heard the stories about you and an Alice, you know."

Hatter shrugged but couldn't wipe the silly grin from his lips if he tried at the thought of Alice. Pidge groaned and gave him a cuff upside the head before looping his arm around Hatter's shoulders.

"What have I told you about gettin' involved with skirts? Dangerous even if they are pretty," Pidge ribbed. Hatter shook his head, still held tightly by Pidge's brotherly hold. Pidge was pulling the 'elder' role on him even though he was only a few years older than Hatter.

"Her mother was kidnapped along with another friend of ours during the explosion. My sources in the City said they saw them being brought South but by who no one knew exactly. All I have is hearsay and guesswork." Hatter scratched at Guinevere's neck, glad that the horses were calming down finally and letting him focus more on the job at hand. "What about you, Pidge? You seen anythin' suspicious?"

Pidge shrugged as if everything he saw was suspicious to him. "The Quadrille is moving out again, as is the White Rabbit. I got paid for some maps a few months ago, maps of the Tunnels... the ones you drew out for me," Pidge said, thinking aloud. "Something is going on but Wonderland knows what."

"The King's son was taken as well," Hatter started and Pidge nodded.

"We know; even in the far South people heard of it. That... likely has nothing to do with anyone in the South." Pidge looked uncomfortable, making it clear that even he doubted that he was right about that. "No matter what the language, everyone in all parts of Wonderland likely heard it. I even read a missive in Poetic Tabor of all languages."

"Luckily you kept going with the languages," Hatter interjected, "I couldn't stand them." Pidge's gift for languages was what made him so useful when entering the more diverse areas of Wonderland. Hatter knew he was lucky that his old friend had elected to help him and not try to keep him from doing what he needed to do.

"You are lucky indeed, considering where you likely have to go, Hatter," Pidge warned. He gave Hatter a suddenly square look. "Snake is still in use, eh?"

Hatter paled slightly. "Why? There's been no need for..."

"Not that you could see but I'm sure Dodo and the Quadrille thought that there was. Port Town is neutral territory though, so you should be safe. Snake won't move if I'm here; we still have our agreement about eggs and trade." Pidge looked around and it was clear that the thought of Snake made him very uncomfortable. "It's getting dark. You should find your girl and bring her to the safe-house."


	10. Call Out

Jack stood before a hologram map and after a moment leaned on the table it shone from. The map was constantly turning and changing direction, providing different viewpoints of the Wabe River and Forest and Jack had to strain to focus on the details. The pale greens and blues of the map highlighted the exhausted lines of his face and threw off a glare that made his eyes ache. After studying the map for a few minutes, Jack bent his head and groaned in exasperation.

The tracking of the newly discovered trail of Will's kidnappers had led them on a rabbit chase until they had ended up at the mouth of Wabe River. Again. With few options and a sense of hopelessness, Jack had acquired a steam-barge from Toby Mouse and had instructed his men to continue to comb the paths. To Jack's way of thinking, there wasn't any way that someone could just completely disappear the way that it appeared the kidnappers had. Yet... it had seemed that way; the tracks suddenly just stopped and were replaced by pristine dirt and no signs of anyone having gone a step further.

Sensing his frustration, his advisors and guards had wisely not said a word to Jack about it. It was more imperative that they tried to find possible reasons and ways how the trail had ended. No one had a solid enough answer though and very few actually approached their King when the temper he was just barely controlling became more and more in danger of being let loose. Years spent under the old Queen's rule had left them rather protective of their heads and no one knew the King that well to know if he would condemn them to a similar threat.

Those with families agreed with one another that under similar circumstances they too would do the same thing. How he hadn't cracked under this pressure yet was admirable to his men.

Jack was left to himself to go over his endless supplies of terrain maps of Wabe. They were all incomplete though, for anyone who tried to map the entirety of Wabe found themselves eaten... or worse. Jack would pop one of the tiny disks into the holograph table and spend only seconds to know if what he wanted was on them. The pile of useless disks was quickly growing.

Hours spent on horseback had left him with an incredibly sore backside and an understandably foul temper. No more signs were found to give even a hint as to where his son had disappeared to. Dead-ends at the Lake meant nothing to him but the inconsistent alibis of those they came across did. The few people who lived within or near Wabe Forest had claimed ignorance and no one could tell him if anything suspicious had happened within the last few days. This had further blackened Jack's mood to the point where he had entertained serious thoughts about throwing them all in prison. Just for the sake of soothing his own irritation.

It was lucky for all of them, and for his reputation, that he was nothing like his mother.

The current layout of Wabe yielded nothing that Jack could use. They were running near the Taiga and the Kingdom of Knights, almost travelling directly between both sections. They were so close to both territories that Jack did not dare to risk sending his men too far out into either. Neither were safe without the proper guides. It would be terrible luck if any of them accidentally fell through one of the Taiga glimmers or tripped one of Charlie's haphazardously laid traps. All the same, here was a small bit of silver lining; the trails did not lead into either the Taiga or the Kingdom. It kept his force more centralized and Jack needed all the men he had with him to stay focussed on the task at hand.

As it was he was using men who were not fully trained nor seasoned. After the destruction of the Red King, Jack had been forced to replace his fallen men with younger, inexperienced ones that hadn't been vetted out as thoroughly as they used to be. With a critical eye Jack watched two such Suits standing near the telescope at the helm of the barge. Both young - just barely over twenty - and of the ones who would have been hired just on family heritage alone. They were both very new to the Royal Service but that wasn't what was bothering him about their presence. They both had a twitchy way of checking the setting sun, the same sort of way Jack would have checked his four-hand pocketwatch if he was waiting for something. It had a vaguely unnerving effect on him and he debated dismissing them offhand just to get them away from him.

But he knew he was being closely watched by the Club Advisors and that any move like that would be seen as odd. Odd for a monarch and it would be reported back to the City immediately to his already concerned wife. Amelia, as devastated as she was by the loss of her son, would be beside herself if it seemed like her husband was 'losing it' and he really could not blame her for such concern. If their positions had been reversed, he would have felt the same way. Although - if he were to be honest - Jack might have been far more controlling and insistent on constant updates. Luckily, Amelia knew him well and had absolute faith that he'd bring their son home.

Shaking his head, Jack pushed the thought of his beautiful, grieving wife from his mind and popped in yet another disk. The map whirred loudly and sprang up with a different visualization of the river that focussed on the trails that ran alongside it. Puzzling it over, Jack stepped back from the holo-map and put his hands behind his back. The map flickered different shades as he let it run its course over the trails and he eventually had to look away, the strain too much. He needed to move and force himself to relax. Jack walked slowly over to the opposite side of the barge and eventually stood with his legs braced against the bobbing motion of the barge, his head leaned back to take in the warmth of the dying sunlight.

"I'll find you, Will," he murmured, mostly to reassure himself.

There was a loud cough followed by, "Pardon me, Sire." The Two of Clubs had appeared behind him, nervously folding a piece of paper over and over again between his spindly fingers. Jack looked over his shoulder at him and frowned. What was this one's name again? Des..Desmond? Jack hardly kept track and couldn't be brought to care at the moment. Not bothering to do more than give the man a cursory look, he turned his eyes back to the riverbank.

"What is it?"

The Club handed over the paper to Jack and quickly moved back to the other side of the barge without speaking a word. His nervousness caught Jack's attention and he frowned, watching the taller man. Finally giving up on understanding the eccentricities of the Clubs, Jack shook his head and opened the soot-stained paper. The words were written in a shaky yet careful scrawl on water-spotted note but they were clear enough.

_Your son is safe._

The four words were enough to nearly send Jack to his knees and only by gripping the side rails did he stay upright. The relief that flooded him was so intense that even his heart seemed to stop for a brief moment. Jack was certain he likely went shades paler but he didn't care. He simply squeezed his eyes tightly shut and thanked Wonderland for the note.

Until he read the rest of it.

_You, dear boy, are not._

Those words had been written by a different hand, something far more educated judging by the swooping cursive and fine calligraphy. Jack scowled at the paper and crumpled it in his hand, finding a vague satisfaction in doing so. He was about to toss it overboard when he caught a sudden glimmer in the trees just over the riverbank. It was a refraction of light off of glass and he squinted through the cover of brush and shadow to see someone standing just within the the trees. It was clear that the light was from a spyglass and it was directed downward but at what Jack couldn't be certain.

The sight of it bothered Jack the longer he stared and without much thought as to why he went back to the table to retrieve his own telescope. The Suits and Club both turned to watch him but Jack took no notice of their expressions. This was perhaps a new break and he had no intention of wasting it on explaining to them.

"Likely would give me a thousand and one legalities as to why I shouldn't jump to conclusions," he muttered as he raised the scope to his eye and squinted through it. "No matter that the legalities get us all killed."

He paused and lowered the glass, having a chilling thought.

"I really **have** been around Hatter too much lately," he said with a mocking shudder. Jokes like that were only fun however when Hatter was around to take offence to them. The barge suddenly rocked a bit, as if it had bumped something, and he nearly dropped the scope. Cursing under his breath, Jack shook his head and made his way to the steersman. Toby Mouse had offered one of his barges on the stipulation that he would be the one to drive it and Jack had been in no mood to argue with those terms at the time.

Toby looked up at him and put down his pipe, unconcerned by the barge's sudden rocking. "Sire?"

"How shallow is the water here?" Jack asked. "We're near the mouth of the Lake I know but..."

"We're running along shallower waters right now, but don't worry. We'll make it down just fine all the same," Toby said as he turned the wheel to the left. The barge lurched slightly and Jack had to grab hold of the partition to keep himself from falling.

"We'll likely have to go all the way back up again," Jack explained but Toby shrugged.

"Few more days of river cruising makes little difference to me, lad," he said as he swiped his hand over his sweated forehead. "All the same, no matter which way."

The barge bumped hard into something, a loud bang ricocheting through the silent air and the entire craft lurched forward. Toby went sprawling over his wheel and he overcorrected it to counter the twist in the barge, before pressing several knobs to drop small anchors all around the barge. It shuddered to a stop and the Suits still standing had to cling hard to the rails to keep from going over.

"Enough room in the shallows, Toby?" Jack sniped as he picked himself up. Toby hauled himself upright and gave him a gaping grin untouched by Jack's sarcasm.

"'Course! Just enough! Not like we're sinking, eh?" Toby asked jovially. Jack couldn't help himself from going to the edge of the barge. He leaned over, expecting to see a gaping hole in the side but amazingly the shabby patchwork of metal and wood was still intact. The shallows revealed a large boulder that seemed out of place in the river and obviously what had given them such a bump.

"Sire, are you hurt?" the Club asked and when Jack looked at him he could see the faint green tinge on his pale cheeks. Apparently not everyone on the boat was very barge-worthy.

"I'm fine. The others?" Jack listened to the answer with only half an ear and looked up into the thick brush. That nagging feeling that he was being watched was back and he brushed aside the worried chatter of his men. He grabbed his scope once more and lifted it warily, running his gaze over the brush carefully. Trying to pick out whoever hid in the brush was far more difficult this time and he had to squint hard even through the eyepiece.

"Sire?" Toby was at his shoulder now and Jack waved him away when he saw that the faint shimmer of someone pointing a telescope back at the barge. It was focussed on the barge again and he followed its downward slant to the boulder.

"Sire, some of your men are missing," Toby insisted and Jack looked over his shoulder to see that the two young Suits he had seen before were gone from sight. Instantly he swung back around and looked over the edge to see that the boulder had changed colour and was rocking fiercely back and forth under the water. The grey colour was quickly going red and then blue, flashing between the colours with increasing speed.

It added up quickly in his mind but on the outside he was frozen, not even able to speak up. The Suits, Club and Toby were all demanding his attention, not realizing the danger they were in. But all Jack could do was think of his wife and son.

* * *

The two men perched in the brush leaned out a bit further and one turned his white head to the other. "Did you put that out there, Matt?" he demanded and the other man, a bit younger and far less disciplined, shrugged casually.

"Not me. I thought it was you," he responded, pushing his spectacles back up his nose absentmindedly.

"Well this is definitely not to plan. They were supposed to go all the way back to the Forests before we overcame them. Or at least that is what I was told," the older man grumbled.

"What's the worse that can happen? The child is safe enough with us and if we distract the King enough, then what's been planned can go off without a hitch. See?" Matt did not seem to be bothered by this new development and he adjusted the spyglass again.

"Hardly. I don't like this," the old man answered. "We should..."

He barely got the words out before the boulder in the water exploded from underneath the barge. The two men watched, stunned, as the entire barge seemed to explode from end to end. It was a fireball of flame that sent a shower of old wood, gears, and water into the air. The men sitting in the brush stared, dumbfounded by the sight of it and hearing the screams of men caught in the blast. Neither could move but they both realized the result of such destruction.

The King of Wonderland had been killed.


	11. Drawing Dead

The Council had been in full-swing long before Amelia had entered the massive Center Hall of the Heart Palace. She had barely crossed the threshold and already she knew who were the ones about to cause her grief. That was typical of the Wonderland royalty; the chances of any of them agreeing to any course of action was slim to none. The Spades, her own distant relations, were arguing fiercely with the Diamonds, while the Clubs were sitting on their side of the table not saying a thing. They were neutral by nature and neutral they'd likely remain no matter what was said. Yet, strangely, was a smugness to their expressions that Amelia could see even at a distance and she narrowed her eyes in thought. The Clubs had always been trustworthy but maybe, just maybe, they were too trustworthy at the moment.

 _It is a sad world,_ she thought, _when I can no longer trust anyone who used to serve the Hearts so loyally._

She had called the Council to discuss the current state of Wonderland and how to proceed after such tragedies and she knew that politics demanded it of her. She had been well educated and knew her duty yet that did not make it any easier. While at present she felt that she should be standing on the ferry docks to see if Jack was coming home or waiting in her rooms to mourn her son, she knew that she had to act differently. Even in the face of such hardship, she was the Queen of Wonderland after all and that role was almost as important as being a mother. The only other option was to turn over total rule to the Council itself, which would be a potentially dangerous path to take. She knew the risks and knew she couldn't think to take them, no matter how much pressure the Council would put on her. Raised in politics as she was and well used to hardship, the former Duchess was not about to be frightened by a Council of old bluebloods.

Nodding to one of her bodyguards, she quickly adjusted the bracelets on her arms and made certain that her form-fitting gold dress was smooth on her long limbs. It had been a chore to dress herself as it befit her station but she did so with great care and with a glance at the mirrored walls, she knew that she at least looked ready to handle these people.

Her guard cleared his throat noisily and banged hard on the massive wood door they stood next to. The Council jointly turned their eyes towards Amelia and her guards. As one, they stood in their place and inclined their heads respectfully. Yet, as Amelia strode down one side of the room to the dais, she could see the faint sneer on some of the elders' face. This was nothing unusual; these were the very ones that had chafed at Jack's rule ever since his coronation.

Which was why they were also the ones most closely watched by her spies.

Without speaking, she took her seat and gestured with her hand for the rest of them to sit. They almost all did so; some of them jutting their heads forward and looking ready to tear into her while others were respectful enough not to meet her steely gaze. One of the eldest Diamonds, a portly man named Abelard, had remained standing. "Your Majesty," he began, his eloquent voice showing his years as a politician, "We had just begun talks about the latest events. This is the first Council called after the unfortunate events revolving around the Prince and the Looking Glass."

The Council turned their chairs towards their Queen, the loud scraping filling the cavernous room. Amelia was well aware that everyone on the twenty-member Council was staring at her intently now at the mention of her son. Each was waiting to see her reaction, rather like wolves waiting for a sign of weakness in their prey, and there was no real pity on any of their faces. Just sickeningly indulgent expressions that gave the impression they were ready for her to break down in tears. Amelia schooled her features into an inscrutable mask and leaned back on the low-backed chair. With little effort she put forth the persona of a languid and entitled Royal.

Only those that had taken the time to get to know her better knew that there was something deeper and far more calculating happening in her mind.

"Thank you all for coming and for waiting for me before starting the meeting itself," Amelia said, mixing in her graciousness with a cold rebuke. They all looked back and forth between one another, her slight segue startling them. Tugging on his puffy grey beard, Abelard cleared his throat noisily to draw attention.

"We hadn't been certain that you would arrive, Majesty. The Council is more than capable of handling the affairs of Wonderland. The recent events would have warranted for you to be with his Majesty, unless you had a reason why…"

"My husband believes me most capable of handling his affairs and trusts my decisions," she snapped and tipped her head on the side. Her eyes held just a glimmer of anger. "You all seem rather eager to discuss matters concerning my son and husband when they are not here. Or when I am not here. I wonder why."

"You realise that suspicions will grow further the longer your poor son is missing. This was all too planned for there not to be some sort of grand scheme. First your son, then the Looking Glass... all around the anniversaries and festivals. There must be a plan of some great devastation," said a Spade. Amelia leaned forward slightly and recognized a cousin of hers; she was likely one that had been ordered to fray the Queen's nerves.

"I have no doubt. But if Wonderland itself stops... if we panic... if the people panic, then all of our hard work at re-establishing a trustworthy and beneficial monarchy will be gone. We will be back to the time of Mary Elizabeth, Jack's mother, and we do not want to return to that time. The people hated the monarchy and the noble houses, and rightfully so. I'm sure you will all agree that we must keep level heads about this and not jump to conclusions." Amelia leaned back and looked from left to right, her eyes pinpointing those that were looking more than just a touch uncomfortable. Something had been going on, she knew that, and knowing this Council it would affect all of Wonderland. North and South combined.

It was Abelard who spoke, not bothered by her rebukes. He had been around for years and he was hard to intimidate. "There needs to be an emergency signing of the Succession." Abelard's words felt like ice going up her spine and she turned her attention to him. "To declare proper heirs in case of further tragedy. With the Prince Heir gone and the King…"

"My son is not dead, Abelard. I warn you that if you insist on inferring that he is, I will petition His Majesty to bring back beheading as punishment," Amelia threatened and he sat down with a heavy plunk. The old threat still had considerable weight in the ranks of the nobles. "Jack is more than capable of finding our son and judging by the trails left by the kidnappers, we will have them in a matter of days provided no more obstacles arise."

A lie, Amelia knew, for Jack had sent her messages about the cold trails and empty leads. Between the lines she had read his despair and hopelessness and had felt it as strongly as he. A lie to say that Jack was closing in on the trial yet it served its purpose. It was very interesting to watch as some of the Council immediately looked down to the table and then up again at one another.

Abelard sighed loudly, tugging on his beard again to show his irritation at having been thwarted on that discussion. "Then perhaps we should discuss the destruction of the Looking Glass." Abelard sent a file folder skittering across the table to her and Amelia caught it up calmly. "Our teams have come up empty-handed as to the identity of the culprits. Most are still in the field, and we have one team of spies currently on reconnaissance in the South. I also feel the need to mention that our chief suspects have gone missing. The Hatter and Alice Hamilton were last seen at the Train Station and our usual sources are saying nothing. They have clearly been paid to keep silent and paid well."

He was baiting her, she knew, and Amelia said nothing. She simply opened the folder and looked at the strange charts of jagged lines and lop-sided circles printed out. Her eyes went back up to him and she raised an eyebrow in question.

Abelard clearly thought it best to move on. Half the Council did not really think that the Hatter nor Alice would have much to do with the explosions. It was a subject he would never win on and not one he could manipulate the Queen over, no matter her possible interference. "You are looking at reports one of my men were sent an hour ago. Several Technicians have been recording strange activity in Wonderland ever since the Looking Glass was destroyed. There have been several large tremors; one caved-in a portion of the Teardrop Mines in the East. There have also been some terrible storms in the West and formerly calm creatures have been found to attack Wonderlanders. We had our first death by borogroves in over two hundred years: a citizen near the Eastern Quay was mauled to death. Now the South has reported that the 'earth shook'."

"And all this because of one explosion? You are suggesting that The Looking Glass was responsible for the weather? An idea of sheer folly," a Club, Lord Beyron, scoffed pompously and several of his family nodded. The Clubs were not about to be swayed by mysticism.

"Have we sent out aid to those in need?" Amelia asked, pressing her hand to her forehead. She was willing to believe that something like the destruction of a conduit would bring on Wonderland's weather changing. She had seen enough magic in her life to know it was very possible but that did not make it seem less incredible. Or terrifying.

"We have deployed resources to help with the Mines and with handling the wildlife. None to to the South yet. They have always been independent of us, no matter the monarch." Abelard seemed to shove his own train of thought aside and he leaned on the table. He had been waiting to raise his point about the South and here was an opportunity. "Due to the explosions and troubles, we have more pressing matters. Even though the South as been affected by the tremors, there is many signs pointing towards them blowing up the Looking Glass. There is a possibility that something has been planned there to take control of all Wonderland."

Amelia put her hand back to her lap and sent him a dumbfounded look. Not at his claim but at his audacity in doing so, especially when they had people from the South in their own Council. Darold, ambassador for the South, was a dark haired young man who had gone red at Abelard's accusations. He cleared his throat and stood as well.

"You cannot be serious! We have always been loyal to the Monarchy, no matter who was in rule. We look to the City to help us keep control of the South." He was clearly furious by the way his brow furrowed and his face kept flushing a brighter red.

"And we are not saying otherwise," Abelard said silkily. "But merely that there is the possibility that someone in the South…"

"Or someone from the City planning to incriminate the South. The South's resources have always been out of reach of _some_ of the Noble Cards," Darold ground out between clenched teeth. There was no doubting **his** implication and Abelard's supporters rose to their feet immediately. The shouting began, the Council splitting exactly down the middle as to who they sided with and no one making much sense. It was like watching a group of schoolchildren scream about losing their favourite toys, Amelia thought to herself. Taking in deep breath, she let it out slowly and counted in her head.

The counting did her temper no good and when she finally had enough she slammed her palm down on the table with a crack. It sent a flash of pain up her arm and she bit back the urge to cry out. Everyone jumped and stared at her, stunned by the sound. Ignoring the throbbing sensation in her hand, she glared at them all and leaned forward slightly.

"That is quite enough." She sniffed and tossed her head proudly. "Some good the lot of you are, squabbling like children and not like the dignified politicians you are supposed to be!"

Her scolding, the sort she might have used on her own child, worked and the entire Council took their seats once more. Several looked at the table but those that managed to look at her had ill-concealed dislike showing in their expressions. One by one, Amelia met their gazes coolly and arched a brow, unwilling to be intimidated. It have her a faint satisfaction to watch as one by one they all looked away, unable to hold her gaze.

"This is not a question of loyalties nor is this the time for anyone to incite a Civil War, am I understood?" Amelia posed it as a question but there was no doubting the command in her voice. The Spades still looked smug - as if her rebuke did not apply to them by some special privilege of their blood relation. She glared at them as well but they were not as cowed by her as the others had been. It would take too much energy to properly discipline them and Amelia did not have the desire to cause further rifts in the Council.

"With the forces so divided in Wonderland City, what is being done for security on the whole?" Amelia asked, an unexpected weariness suddenly flooding her. Though she knew that she was to keep up appearances, for the sake of her husband at least, she couldn't help but long to go back to her rooms and away from this all.

"The Lake Prison forces are still in full. The rest of your guards and soldiers are rather… divided." It was one of the Clubs who mentioned this, reading from a folder. "A substantial amount went with the King, for protection of course. Several groups have gone to provide relieve to several outposts for us. It leaves us understaffed, my Lady."

Amelia rested her chin on a hand. "That...is not good news."

"It is our suggestion that the planned celebrations and festivals be pushed to a later date," Abelard said formally and Amelia nodded.

"Of course. The City will be in no state to hold such things."

Abelard handed his assistant a folder and leaned further forward. "The Diamonds believe that the formal declaration as to the kidnap of the heir would be advisable."

"So that we could have mass panic?" Darold commented dryly from where he was still glaring at the Diamond.

"Supporters of the old Queen are still about, though not in great number. If Jack Heart is without an heir, we run the risk of another attempted coup," Beyron thought aloud. His dark eyes were on Amelia's face. "Not to say that the populace doesn't realise what has happened, but if we show panic, then this could spiral out of control."

Amelia thought it over, her brain trying to ignore the niggling doubt that they were going about this the wrong way.

"Though who is to say a coup is not being attempted as we speak?" Amelia blurted out without thinking and almost immediately the entire Council erupted into furious action. Those who thought she meant them screamed at those who thought that she was being too paranoid, while there was no one who actually denied her accusation. Her thoughtless words had clearly touched a raw nerve and Amelia watched as they continued to shout over one another again. The accusations flew through the air and she wondered, just wondered, who were the real traitors to the Throne here.

She had a very good idea even without her spies' reports.

The heated arguments continued and Amelia was on the verge of ordering them silent when she suddenly noticed a small page standing beside her chair. He was a young boy from one of the minor families, a heart-shaped insignia on his cheek and sewn into his white attire to show his loyalties. He must have slipped in when the Council had started to shout and it was clear that it frightened him. The page was staring at her with wide brown eyes, his lips pursed while in his hand he held a thin sheet of paper that quivered as much as his lips did. Amelia frowned at him and turned in her seat. She hadn't requested any papers.

"What is it, page?" Amelia asked, not bothering to raise her voice. The Council was so focussed on yelling at one another that there was no point in trying to get their attention. A child was better company at the moment.

"Majesty," the boy began and then stalled, still trembling. Amelia laid a hand on his arm and smiled thinly at him.

"Just breathe, boy. You're new here?" At his nod, she inclined her head toward the Council. "Please ignore them for now. They are like children."

That earned her a nervous smile and the page took a deep breath. "My Queen, the King..."

"Has sent word?" she asked, turning eagerly. Catching her question, the entire Council quieted and suddenly the attention of the nobles focussed on the page. His nervousness seemed to increase and his eyes darted from the group to his feet again.

"Mistress, the King... he... he is..." He took a deep breath and then finally looked her in the eye. Amelia read the pity in his eyes and felt a growing horror gather in her mind.

"No," she whispered so lowly that no one heard her. The page looked away from her to stare at his feet again. Even with his chin pressed towards his chest the page's words were clear,

"The King is dead."

* * *

_In the South Swamps_

"The King is dead."

The loud voice above her sounded terrified, the sudden shout completely disrupting the silence. Carol opened her eyes and groaned, rubbing at them to try to get rid of that crusty feeling from her drugged induced sleep. After a moment she was managed to lift her heavy head from the floorboard. It took her a moment to remember where she was and a moment longer to keep her instinctive panic under control. It had been hours since they had been moved from the train to this strange bus-like vehicle but she was only now getting used to the feel of it.

The dual level bus was chugging along slowly and Carol could feel every bump and tug on the vehicle's wheels. They had left the train quickly, forced to go along with the orders of their kidnappers by threatening electric prods and guns. Even then she had tried to fight but for her trouble she had been injected with a tranquilizer and tossed roughly into the bottom cabin of the bus, Charlie right behind her. The drugs had gone through her system quickly and she had slipped in and out of consciousness without any clear sense of time. Each time she had come awake she would simply start to drift back asleep, too weary to keep her eyes open, and then a loud bump or a shout would wake her again.

She hadn't had this fitful a sleep since Alice had been a baby.

Carol rubbed at her eyes again and groaned, pressing the heel of her hand into the centre of her forehead to try to relieve the headache threatening to erupt. The drugs were still in her system, making her sluggish and unable to move much without feeling nauseous. She could feel Charlie still beside her, his armour occasionally squeaking noisily as he shifted. There hadn't been much movement from him since they had been put in the bus. Everytime she had woken up she had seen him resting beside her, his chin pressed into his chest as he napped and mumbled in his sleep. He hadn't been drugged oddly enough. Carol remembered hearing the kidnappers say that they didn't need to drug an old man but they didn't dare leave an Oyster aware.

Whatever that meant. It was gibberish to her.

Carol eyed the White Knight, making sure that he was still alive since his chest barely rose and fell. He had been trying to plot out some hair-brained escape plan that involved him 'transferring his soul' into a guard. A rather fantastic plan that had ended with him knocking himself out after banging himself on the head with his own escutcheon. Charlie's continued attempts at "Black Arts" had resulted in him being tased several times by their guards and Carol's concern about how much his heart could take was growing. It had been terrible to watch and she was a softhearted person by nature. Knowing that this man was a friend of Alice's just made her worry all the more. He was her one link to her daughter in this strange world and she didn't know what she would do if something happened to him.

There was a loud but incoherent argument going on above them; so loud that it was going through the boards separating them from the upper level of the bus. Carol pushed herself up further onto her elbows and tilted her head, listening but unable to understand the voices. Something must have happened to cause such a ruckus. This entire kidnapping had been done in almost relative silence, despite her attempts to get answers and Charlie's nearly incessant chattering. Not once had the kidnappers said very much beyond something they called 'word games' or the odd order or two. Each time someone came to give them food or water, it had been made clear that there was little she could say to get them to explain the reasons for the kidnapping.

It reminded her of the books and movies where a kidnapper would do something because they simply believed it was right. That terrified her more than she could let on. She'd almost prefer that this be for money or for whatever it was that Wonderland used for money. If there was nothing more behind this, what would stop them from killing her? The yelling above made it clear that something was happening and Carol went pale at the thought that this volatile argument could turn to one about killing her and Charlie.

"Something wrong, my dear?" the White Knight asked suddenly and she looked in surprise at him. He hadn't lifted his head, so his voice was muffled, but it was clear enough in quiet bottom level of the bus.

"I thought you were asleep."

He grunted and adjusted his armour a bit more so that he could breathe easier. Lifting his chin, he stroked at his moustache and tweaked the ends absentmindedly. "After that last _shocking_ experience, I elected to merely rest my eyelids but not sleep. One never knows when the situation may arise where escape is a possibility, you know." He clicked his tongue, nodding to himself as if he agreed with his own words. After a moment, Charlie turned his bright eyes to her face. "By Phaeton you looked rather... peaky."

"Peaky?" Carol stared at him. That was an old term, one from well over thirty years ago in her world. Who said 'peaky' anymore? But this was Wonderland, she acquiesced, and she was starting to understand that things tended to be a bit… different here. "What does that mean exactly? Are you saying I look awful?"

It was a rather unfair to ask of him but her nerves were still shot and her frustrations were starting to mount. That was obvious even to Charlie and as she glared at him, he marvelled at how like her daughter she really was. The expression was the same and even the way she held her head was the same. She really _was_ like Alice and maybe in more ways than was immediately obvious. That was an uncomfortable thought and without realizing it, he checked to see if she too was glowing in anyway. Strangely, despite her clearly emotional state, there was nothing. _Now that,_ Charlie thought in wonder, _is odd. One would think that Alice had gotten this power from somewhere. From her mother for certain._ Yet beyond a faint red tinge to her cheeks and the sparks in her eyes, Carol looked just as normal as she ever did.

 _Maybe she needed a mark before she glowed or more time in Wonderland_ , Charlie decided. After all, Alice's marks tended to glow when her power was tapped into and not even Alice knew what actually caused her power to work.

At the loud clearing of Carol's throat, he jumped and gave her a contrite look. He knew that expression; it was the same one his wife the Cook would give him when he had infuriated her. He was in trouble and make no mistake of that. There was no way to escape her like he could his wife since they were stuck together.

Charlie was saved from answering by the renewed arguing above them and a loud whoosh of a door being opened and closed. They both looked above them, Charlie's tentative insult forgotten already. Carol was not about to press for an explanation when they were in this together and he was really the only one she could depend on right now to interpret Wonderland for her. That was a painfully frustrating but true thought and she sighed, rubbing at the back of her neck as she stared at the ceiling.

The floorboards shuddered as several people walked down the length of it and even the bus rocked slightly as if the weight was being distributed unevenly. Not once did the loud, angry voices cease but now there were feet tapping on the floorboards impatiently, like someone was restlessly waiting for something.

"What in the wild Kingdom of Knights is going on?" Charlie was staring wide-eyed at the ceiling, his head tilted on the side like a quizzical cat.

"I don't know. There was something about their King being dead or something." Carol shrugged and stretched her legs out to try to relieve the pins and needles feeling. Apparently she had been asleep for longer than she thought judging by her numb toes. She yawned and then began to rub at her toes to get the sensation back. "King of what, exactly? A fairy king? Maybe they're hobgoblins or something strange like that, these kidnappers."

Her attempt at a weak joke fell flat and when Charlie didn't speak she stopped her stretching. Carol looked up from her toes to see that he was incredibly pale and his eyes were almost... hollow. As if what she had said had snuffed out the bright spark within him. It was like looking at a kicked puppy and she felt her heart go out to him without meaning for it to do so.

"The King is dead?" His voice was so low that she could barely hear him. The grief in his words stunned her and she frowned, watching him wipe a hand across his mouth. His hands were shaky and his chain mail made a chinking sound as he turned to stare at her full on. "Jack Heart... dead?"

Carol shrugged, not sure what else she could say and not even one hundred percent who he was talking about.

His head slumped back down on his chest and he trembled. There was a faint whimper from him, and then a choked sob. "Oh that poor Heart. He would never deserve such a thing. Assassination, most likely," Charlie muttered and his words became jumbled so that she didn't understand a word of what he was saying. Giving up on understanding 'Charlie-speak', Carol stared at him, trying to think why the name Jack Heart was familiar.

"Jack... Jack..." she mumbled, trying hard to think around her still muzzy memory. It took some thinking but after a bit her mind finally pieced together why the name rang a bell. She remembered a Jack now: a tall, brown-haired young man from a while ago who had been rather stiff but a gentleman all the same. Alice had dated a Jack. Yet his last name had been Chase… or had it been something else? Why did that Heart part sound familiar?

Carol shook her head and groaned as it came back to her. Alice's story that had been told her after Alice's second return from Wonderland. The story that had let Carol know just what had really happened before Alice had been found in that construction site. Throughout that long tale, one of her main characters had been a Jack Heart, who had been Jack Chase, and the King of Wonderland. One of Alice's friends who had travelled alongside her daughter and changed for the better because of it. The entire story that had given Jack a new identity altogether, one that Carol had come to admire in a strange way, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Charlie's grief and the reason why the people above them were arguing made perfect sense then.

"Of course. Alice's Jack. He's the only real King here?" She asked and at his nod, she immediately felt like a heel for her weak joke earlier. "Oh, Charlie, I'm sorry." She reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. The trembling continued for a few more minutes and she felt awkward, not sure how to comfort him for the loss of a friend. Had she known Jack or even Charlie better, this would have been easier.

Charlie sniffed back the tears and cleared his throat in a loud raspy way while wiping at his nose with the back of his hand. He stared down at his armour and then suddenly began to adjust it as if it was an all-consuming endeavour. It was obvious that he was trying to distract himself from his grief and Carol sighed, squeezing his shoulder gently. It was odd to see his reaction, odd to see how quickly he was trying to push his emotions down and cover them up.

 _Talk about repression_ , she thought dryly.

"Yes... well. As you must realize, I have grown quite attached to the young King." His eyes were already red-rimmed, as if he had been crying for hours though it had only been a minute or so. "He was young and full of so much promise as a ruler. His life already knew such trials in just securing his throne..."

"Maybe they're wrong. People make mistakes about this all the time in my world you know. I have stories about it," Carol started and he gave her a half-hearted smile, his rambling halted for now.

"As do we... but even if the person is alive…usually it ends up being far more tragic than if they had died. " That strange yet serious phrase made Carol look at Charlie differently. He seemed to believe that there were far worse things than death here, and that macabre thought made her shiver and rub at her arms. What things could be worse? She wanted to ask him that but had the feeling that she wouldn't like the answer. Charlie was staring blindly at the red-painted ceiling, a far-away look in his bright eyes. There almost seemed to be a milky film growing in his iris and she frowned.

For the first time, Carol wondered if she had misjudged the White Knight. It was likely something that was often done, judging by his more usual antics.

Heavy boots suddenly clomped down onto the floor from up above and Carol jumped though Charlie simply blinked at the sound. He put his hand in hers to comfort her and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. The clomping carried up to the front of the bus and then stopped. Carol squinted up through the dim interior light; the windows had been blacked out on their level of the bus but even she could see that the moon was out already. The loud rattle of gears and the clanging of a bell momentarily overwhelmed the loud arguing up above before it all stopped at once. The two-tier wagon came to a bone jarring halt and someone above walked heavily from one end to the other once more. Together, they both turned their eyes to the ceiling and wondered just what was going on up above.

* * *

_It was all going wrong._

Bobby Cagey, son of William Cagey, had taken a seat after yanking the emergency brake on the circuit board. The steam-powered bus was having a hard enough time going through the murky swampland of the South and every few kilometres they had to force the bus to a lower gear. Even then, it would chug along and it seemed they were going slower and slower. _Soon_ , Bobby thought despairingly, _they'd be found out._ He'd likely be hung or decapitated... or worse: sentenced to life in the Lake Prison.

The other members of the conspiracy sat in the bench seats that lined the top part of the bus. The ginger haired man who had done the announcing still remained standing. He went by the codename of Leach and was the most senior of them. In a self-important way, he adjusted his trousers higher on his thin waist before thumbing his suspenders. He met Bobby's eyes with an arched expression and Bobby pushed his glasses higher on his nose in response. Leach had brought them the news from the shoreline, coming remarkably fast through the secret trails, and his words had startled all of them. Bobby could tell that the other man was proud of himself for being the first with this news and he wondered how someone who had once been in such high-standing with the Quadrille could stoop so low to be happy to have this dismal news.

"The news must not be false. No one in his or her right mind would joke about such a matter. Why would you all assume I, with my long history with the conspiracies of Wonderland, would make this into some strange jest? " Leach cleared his throat. "The King of Wonderland is dead. Dead as a borogrove stuck in a jabberwock's belly. Dead as a plant in winter. Dead as…"

"We get the point, Leach, enough. Be it as it may, that was not to plan." This was from one of the women in the back of the bus, who pushed her ebony braids back from her face and leaned forward expectantly. Bobby had to squint to recognise her. She was one of the old members of the previous resistance, one of the ones who went without any name at all. "We were just supposed to take the Oyster so that the other rebels did not kidnap her and use her for their ends. So that we could create a more controllable conduit to Wonderland; one that we could use to… escape if we needed to."

"And instead we got the King murdered!" Bobby couldn't keep the quiver from his voice. "Do you all realize what this means?"

He was met with silence from all of them. The mixture of old Quadrille members, South rebels and Wonderland City Resistance defectors all looked just as worried as he felt. Leach sighed and rubbed at his face rapidly as if to chase away his thoughts.

"The rebel arm of the White Rabbit went ahead with their old plans. They adapted their plans and went with the plan we didn't think they would use." He stared at them all. "This was too high a cost. The King was not to be injured. When we received word of this insane plan to perform a coup on the monarch's government using the Oyster magic and the Looking Glass, we were trying to keep it from happening. We all were happy with Jack Heart as the ruler. He was better than his mother had been in less than a full year of actual rule."

There were murmurs of agreement this time.

"Clearly someone was not happy," said a South rebel. "Our plan was merely to try to keep the White Rabbit from having too many pawns to use. In doing so, we were hopefully going to get the Hearts' appreciation when we revealed the White Rabbit's plans. Hoping that we could gain more power in our own right in the government with our own leaders. But now we've cost Jack Heart his life. I don't know about any of you, but I did not need this on my conscience."

"So what are we going to do?" Bobby was unable to control the quiver in his voice. "Do we return the Oyster and Knight or continue on to the Drawling retreats as planned? We could contact the Hearts from there. The Queen would be kind, I know it, and she would protect us."

Leach stared down at the floor. "We run the risk of being captured by the White Rabbit. Those in the Council who are part of their scheme will not take kindly to finding out the role we all played. If they even caught one of us, that person would be tortured into revealing the rest of us. They would turn us over to the leaders of the White Rabbit."

He looked up from the floor and saw how pale his compatriots were. Torture was something feared in Wonderland and had been long before the rule of the Queen of Hearts. Those who had been in the Resistance long ago had seen the results of the tortures of Doctors Dee and Dum. The end results had never been pretty.

Leach straightened, realizing he had to keep control of this group before they all panicked and just gave in. "Not to put further damper on these plans but who wants to be the one to deal with Alice of Legend and her Hatter? We all have heard the stories of the Taiga and the White Queen and those that know the Hatter know he is unpredictable."

"Especially when it comes to that girl," one of the women in the back muttered. She had a rose flower painted on her cheek and was sitting with a sullen look on her face. Leach didn't recognize her and he quickly committed her face to memory so he could question Bobby about it later.

"What are we going to do?" Bobby asked, not seeing Leach's look to the back of the bus. Leach looked at him and then at the others, realizing that he would have to make up their minds about this. He had no way of contacting the actual brains of this operation being this far out South and he did not like being this in charge of such strangely trying situations.

They were all staring at him expectantly and he sighed. "We continue to the Tunnels, where the old conduits were made. We go ahead with recreating a conduit from the Oyster magic and pray that it succeeds. The White Rabbit may have destroyed it but we can rebuild it. Keep it from their control and what they plan to do. The results may be cataclysmic if Wonderland is not tied to the Otherworld to stabilize it."

There was a hushed murmur as people agreed with him and he looked at Bobby. "Send word to the Drawling Master. We'll have need of his… services."

* * *


	12. The Serpent and the Pigeon

Night had finally fallen, slipping down around the buildings like a heavy veil that plunged the Port Town's streets into almost total darkness. Standing in the doorway of the Harbour Haven Shop, Alice chewed on her lower lip and then wrapped her arms around her middle to ward off the chill in the air. Hatter must be around here somewhere and she didn't want to move from the place he had left her. He did have a habit of being late and then simply materializing out of nowhere, so she knew better than to leave without good reason. But the darker it became, the more she wanted to move to find some place still open and safer than the dark doorway of this strange store.

Alice had only realized the late hour when Caryn Drawling had declared that it was time for the shop to close and began to lock up. It had been stunning to see she had been sitting there for the better part of two hours, drinking cup after cup of hot coffee while chatting about absolute nonsense. It had been like staying over at one of her friend's places when she had lived in her old world and the odd familiarity of it had been comforting. There had been a sliver of her old life in those hours and she had enjoyed it. It had taken her mind away from the rather distressing circumstances that had led her to meet the shopkeeper, who had only shown her kindness.

Their conversation hadn't revealed anything much; it had been almost… girlish. They talked about the stores in Wonderland City and Port Town, the fashions, how the shop was run and what the South people did for fun. They even spoke briefly about Alice's world but she had sensed that Caryn wasn't really interested in that. Instead she had been told silly stories about the toths that appeared in the store sometimes or the actual horseflies that liked to form little herds on the dockside in the cold months. Stories that really revealed little about the South or about this friendly woman.

There had been nothing expected in return despite Alice having thought that she should at least pay her for the coffee. The lack of required payment was a strange thing in Wonderland; everything here had its price no matter how strange that price or circumstance may be. Yet Caryn had only smiled and waved aside Alice's offer to help her close up as a form of payment. The friendliness of the conversation and the almost amicable way she had been told not to pay had almost eradicated Alice's worries about this woman.

Almost, but not quite.

The older woman had a secretive air about her and the way she could handle conversation in an astonishingly clever way. When asked anything remotely personal she would divert Alice's attention in a casual way, and she had an easy grin that was almost too easy. Alice thought that, in the brief span of time she had spent with the woman, Caryn somehow reminded her of something pristine and quiet yet there was the threat of something dangerous about to happen. She was familiar as well but Alice had a good recollection of everyone she had met in Wonderland. But she couldn't recall if she had ever exactly seen this woman before and only Caryn's distracting conversation had kept her from asking if they had met before.

In some way, her unease about Caryn made leaving the shop a bit of a relief. Caryn hadn't offered to show Alice to a safer spot and it became clear that their brief association was not to extend beyond the shop. There was logic to it, Alice had to admit, since she didn't want to have to explain a perfect stranger to Hatter. He was paranoid enough about strangers at times. Knowing her luck, this would have been someone who had it in for Hatter for some past transgression and then they'd be chased all around Port Town.

The thought of him made her glance down the street, hoping to see his familiar frame.

"Well that was certainly a waste of time, don't you think?" Chesh purred in her ear and Alice eyed him. The cat had remained curled around her shoulders throughout her visit with Caryn and not said a word. That was unusual, Alice supposed, but she was thankful for it.

"Why? Because we didn't deceive and kill her?" Alice asked lowly. Chesh had let his head reappear but the rest of his body was invisible, which made the sight of that disembodied head chilling. Alice looked away and resisted the urge to shiver.

"Now now, dear girl, I only do so for the sake of the ends. Who is to dictate what the means must be to reach the ends?" Chesh questioned and his tail slid around her throat.

"Sounds like the true words of a sociopath," Alice muttered and felt his claws dig _just_ slightly into the delicate skin of her neck. She pursed her lips and looked up at the sky. "And if you keep doing that, you'll be learning if these charms do work."

She touched the charm bracelet and felt his claws retreat enough that she didn't feel the pinch. However, when she looked at his feline grin, she felt a touch of unease despite her threat.

"You may speak a good turn, Alice, but you are not a killer. Elsewise you would have executed me in the first place instead of turning me into a cat. A chance at redemption after all, and it was rather kind of you." Chesh sounded smug. "You are so very human."

"Compassion isn't just an Oyster trait," Alice whispered and he purred a bit deeper in her ear.

"No of course not. But it is a weakness that I just adore about you," he said. Alice resisted the urge to crush one of the charms in her hand, knowing that he was baiting her deliberately. To what end she couldn't be certain but from past experience she knew that it would be no good to give in to his snide comments. He was right though about one thing: she wasn't a killer.

"Shut up, Chesh. Don't make me regret not bringing that cage along with us." She sighed and looked down the street. "Do you have any idea where Hatter could have gotten to?"

All she received in response was a faint meow and she rolled her eyes. Apparently he was going to take her literally and not speak to her, something that did not bode well for the remainder of this 'quest'. If Hatter learned of Chesh's attitude, there was no telling how he may react to it. Alice only hoped that Hatter still frightened Chesh enough that the cat would co-operate easier in the future. He wasn't frightened of her apparently.

Alice tucked her collar up closer around her face and breathed out slowly. It felt colder in the darkness and she had been standing out here for fifteen minutes, watching the streets impatiently. They were barren and rather still after the rampaging crowds from just hours earlier. The docks were quiet as well, the ships tied up and left alone though she wondered if the dockworkers weren't somewhere on the dockside. If there was a bar nearby, there was no sign of it; the streets were remarkably quiet but she had assumed that Port Town was bound to have some raucous port bars and taverns.

Clearly not on this side of the town.

Fidgeting nervously, Alice unconsciously reached up and stroked Chesh's back. The fur was soft and warm under her fingers and he began to purr happily at her touch. The gesture meant nothing to Alice; she needed something to do before her nerves were shot to pieces waiting for Hatter like this. Waiting for him in the City was one thing but waiting for him in a strange town was quite another.

Alice cleared her throat noisily and dropped her hand from Chesh's fur to tuck it back into her pocket. The purring stopped and his weight seemed to disappear from her shoulders, signaling that he had become invisible once more. Having little else to do, she leaned her head against the doorway and closed her eyes.

There was a _snick-snick_ on the cobblestones, a strange sound in the stillness and she opened her eyes immediately. The sound was rhythmic and Alice leaned a bit out of the door to look down the street. It had been almost pitch black out there but now there was a faint tunnel of blue lights in the distance. It took her a moment to see through the darkness but finally a very tall and awkward shape took form. Once he was several doors down from her, Alice let go of the breath she had been holding.

A man on stilts was walking slowly from lamppost to lamppost, taking his time handling the blue-flame candles within. Alice watched his slow progression for lack of anything better to do until he was just over her, lighting the post above the Harbour Haven Shop. He didn't appear to see her until he was about to light the wick and his stilt just missed stepping on her foot. Peering down, he gave her a very white-toothed grin.

"Dark night out, eh, love?" he asked. "Happens when bad weather is coming, you know."

He adjusted his bright red scarf around his face and Alice gave him a polite smile, thanking him once the candle was lit. It was a bit of a comfort to be able to see through the darkness again. The lamplighter simply inclined his head and with a faint whistle he was on his way again, awkwardly striding down the street. His stilts still made that odd snicking sound and the lantern he was swinging creaked just as noisily. Alice watched him indifferently, not bothered by the strange sight. That was nothing to her mind anymore and after a minute she merely 'humphed' before looking back out at the lake. She had only just taken her eyes off of him when she heard a loud clatter and more than a few colourful curse words. It took her a moment to see where he was but the sight of a single stilt held awkwardly in the air let her know that he had fallen. The lamplighter must have gotten one of the rubber feet on his stilts caught in the cobblestones to fall like that and his lantern was on the ground as well, the light of it ebbing quickly.

Alice immediately sprinted over to him and heard him still cursing.

"Are you all right?" Alice asked, grabbing hold of the stilt in the air. She helped him shift it down and watched as he turned over onto his buttocks. He sat there breathless and propped his arms on his knees. The red scarf was lying on the ground and Alice retrieved it for him, waiting as he tried to catch his breath. She couldn't quite see his face in the dim lantern light but she could hear the strangled way he gulped in breaths. "Maybe you shouldn't talk for a while. Did you need me to…"

"Nah, don't worry, lass." He took in a deep gulp of air and then adjusted his feet more securely into his stilts again. "Happens all the time. But normally a pretty lady isn't here to help me."

Alice ignored the compliment, still hearing the scratchiness in his breathing. He must have really landed, she thought, for him to sound like that. "Shouldn't this job be a team thing?"

"Only one lamplighter per block. Part of our union contract, you know. We stay out of each other's way and that keeps people from fightin' like toths and jabberwocks." The analogy made Alice smile indulgently and she looked around. The streets were still empty.

"Do you fall often?" she asked to make conversation. The lamplighter reached out with a hand and waggled his fingers impatiently at her. Alice took his hand, the hard leather of his gloves scratching at her skin and she masked a wince as she helped him up. It took some maneuvering to get him upright again, the stilts making an awkward brace and it was like putting a high ladder up against a roof.

"Happens now and then. Comes with the job, lass." The lamplighter staggered for a minute and Alice went to grab him before he fell. But he simply waved her hand away and swung his arms out to the side to keep his balance. He teetered and then finally straightened up, apparently finding his ability again.

"I'd hate to have your job then," Alice said and he chuckled.

"Hand me the lantern. That's a good lass." She had to jump to give him the lantern, not wanting for him to bend over and fall again, and he swung it in the air. He squinted into the tiny cabin that held the candle and then made a tsk sound.

"The light is dying," she began but he was holding it up to his face. Cupping his free hand into the lantern, he blew on the wick and as Alice watched the candle rekindled. The blue light grew strong enough that it gave them both an eerie glow and Alice finally saw his face. It was a kind though drawn one, his face rather narrow in build with a brilliant pair of dark brown eyes. Scratching at his short beard, he bent over and shone the light directly into her face. His eyes went over her quizzically and she felt snared by the kind sadness in them. He had a look about him that said he had experienced more than she could imagine and for some reason it made her uncomfortable.

He, on the other hand, was studying her just as intently. His eyes dropped to her neck, as if he could see the invisible Chesh there, before they went back to hers.

"Are you an Oyster?" he asked curiously and she nodded dumbly. Sucking in a breath, the lamplighter straightened again and shook his head sadly. "Then I'm truly sorry for you. It isn't easy being one, miss. Worse being one here in Port Town when they are already looking for you."

"What are you talking about?" Alice demanded but he was already starting to walk away, whistling once more. The snick of his stilts was steadier now and she watched him slowly disappear down the docks, still lighting each lamppost. Alice stared and then shook her head. "That was just… strange."

She turned on her heels and promptly banged into someone. At first she thought it was Hatter, judging by the leather coat and hat, but Alice leapt away. This close she could tell easily that it wasn't. The man staring at her was well into his forties with a gap-toothed grin that was more lascivious than pleasant. He also smelled terrible, like fish and sewer, and Alice wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"You lost, darlin'?" he asked, his voice slurring.

"Not at all." Alice gave him an uneasy smile and turned around again. This time she banged into a man that topped her by a good foot but who had a similar look and smell to him as the other one. Alice realised that they were bracketing her in and she clenched her fists.

"Lost little birds often get their necks wrung out here, on the lonely lonely docks," the smaller man said. From behind him two other men came into the light and Alice's stomach tightened into a hard ball. The two newcomers looked just as rough as the others and Alice stepped back.

"I'm waiting for someone," Alice declared and the big man to her left grinned.

"Sure you are, Oyster. Doesn't matter to us. We've been lookin' for you, you know."

The little man grinned, his few teeth gleaming white in the dim lamplight. "Lookin' for you all day and here you are. Like a little present wrapped up for us. Lucky for you, you're wanted alive you know."

One of the men behind him snorted. "The holo-message didn't say if they wanted her in prime shape, did it?"

He looked her up and down before licking his lips and Alice glared at him. Chesh's invisible body uncoiled itself from her neck. "You got this one, right?" he asked and she felt his weight leave her shoulders.

"Coward!" she hissed under her breath and watched as a disembodied head floated just above the big man's own head. The cat winked at her, the vicious grin flashing before he disappeared completely.

"Not sure why they wanted four of us to bring her in, eh, Tot? She's a mighty small thing," the big man asked the small man. The small man reached for her and Alice slapped him hard, sending him sprawling into the men behind him. The big man howled with laughter and Tot stood again.

"Laugh it up. I like 'em rough and fiery," he argued, trying to cover up that her slap had actually hurt. He looked at his two thugs behind him. "You two grab her and lets get this party moved back to base."

Alice braced herself, her body instinctively reverting back to her old judo lessons, and watched as the one man came to her side. She didn't move and simply waited until he grabbed at her shoulder before she reacted. Grabbing his hand, she twisted and swung him using his own body weight over her shoulder. He toppled to the ground, landing hard on his back and Alice turned in time to just dodge a punch thrown by the second man.

They were street scrappers by the look of things and she had had enough self-defense training to handle herself. The man overextended his reach and she slipped underneath it, slamming the heel of her hand up into his jaw. It crunched loudly and he howled, turning his head to the side and catching her elbow in his cheek when he tried to charge her. Alice was keeping herself from getting in too much trouble with these men, not using her body as a block like she used to. Instead, she kept her arms loose at her side and was ready to block another blow when she felt someone grab her.

The big man behind her had a strong hold; his massive arms were like two crushing vices that squeezed her body tightly. Alice squirmed in his hold and tried to get a good grip with her boots on the cobblestone as he started to lift her off the ground.

"Tot!" The big man shouted when Alice nearly banged her head back against his face. "Knock the girl out, will you? It's like holdin' a fish or somethin'!"

The little man grinned and walked around his fallen comrades. Alice stopped struggling, seeing his cockiness in every step he took. Cockiness she knew that she could take advantage of. She waited until he was almost right against her before she slammed her knee up into his groin with a satisfying crunch. He howled, clutching himself as he fell to his knees and rolled over to his side. The big man holding Alice was stunned and she threw her arms up into the air, sliding down and out of his hold with relative ease the moment his grip loosened. She twirled on one foot and promptly slammed it down into his instep. Her boot heel sent a shock of pain up his body and he bent over. Momentarily frozen, he looked up at Alice when she grabbed his shoulders and she gave him a faint smile. Confused, he looked back down and she brought her knee up hard into his face.

It sent his head rocking back and he toppled over onto the street.

Alice gulped in air and put her hand on her stomach, rubbing there unconsciously as she stared at the four whimpering men. _I must not be as rusty as I believed_ , she thought to herself, _didn't even have to use magic for that._

She turned around and immediately froze when she realized that she was staring down the barrel of a shotgun. It was directed at her face and the newcomers she was faced were clearly more experienced than the others she had just taken care of. Rough-worn and dusty in leather dusters and heavy wool trousers, the two men stared at her rather stupidly but the woman they were with looked impressed in the muted light.

"You are a small bit of a girl and you took down four of Port Town's better… enforcers." The woman's face was covered by a heavy scarf to hide it but the dark eyes that glinted at her were amused. The woman pulled the scarf down enough to reveal a sly smile, her thin face drawn into an amused indulgent look. She looked Alice's age if not a bit older but it was hard to tell when she wore a hood so closely over her face. Her eyes were very dark, looking black with tiny pinpoints of light.

She assessed Alice just as quickly. "So, an Oyster. Haven't see one of you in ages." She then looked over at the four men lying on the ground. "Not only that, but an Oyster **female**. And you all call yourself fighters. Pitiful."

Alice took her eyes off the other woman and looked at the two men. They were clearly just there to guard the woman and judging by the easy way the woman held the gun, she was definitely in charge. The woman looked back at her and using the gun muzzle she tilted Alice's head up.

"Not sure why Dodo wanted an Oyster captured."

"Dodo asked you to…" Alice started but the woman tapped the gun threateningly against her throat.

"It is really better if you don't speak, girl. Otherwise, I might get emotional and for me, that means this gun goes off. Judging by how it is pointed, that means your pretty little face will be blown clean off." The woman looked over her shoulder at the two men. "Did Owl say why Dodo wanted her? Or who she was?"

"Owl just said we were to catch an Oyster and the Hatter at Port Town. That was it. You know her: vague as anything and half as forgetful." The one man who had spoken produced a pair of handcuffs. "You want me to…?"

He dangled them meaningfully and the woman rolled her eyes. "Of course, you idiot."

Alice stepped back away from them and right back into the big man again. He had pulled himself up during Alice's distraction and this time when he held her arms his hands were even harder on her arms.

"Wait a minute, who the hell do you people think you are?" Alice demanded even as she was handcuffed. The woman gave her a smile that would have been friendly if it wasn't for the shotgun that she still held against Alice's neck.

"You can call me Snake, little Oyster. And if you have a brain in that head of yours, you won't do anymore of that fighting of yours. Dodo said nothing about bringing you in alive," the woman threatened. Alice opened her mouth to argue but felt a pair of fingers pinch several nerve points on her neck. Almost instantly her vision went dark and she slumped in the man's arms.

* * *

Alice woke with a start and nearly rolled right off the pallet she had been lying on. Immediately queasy, she lowered her head back down and pressed her hand to her forehead. Chain bumped her nose and she winced at the sting of it, finally opening her eyes to check her hands. Both were tightly clasped together and bound by matching shackles, tight enough that each time she moved they would rasp against her skin.

She hadn't been this uncomfortable in days and that was saying something.

"Okay, Alice," she said to herself, "what have you gotten yourself into this time?" Reaching down, she rested her bound hands on her stomach. "If you are in there, I hope you're okay. That probably wasn't easy for you."

It would have been easy for Alice to lose herself worrying about her pregnancy but already her mind was pulling away to try to think of a way out of this mess. She tested the chains on her hands and found them strong, the sort that were going to keep her from doing much of anything. "Stupid, stupid stupid," she growled, angry at herself. How many times would she get into situations like this before she learned her lesson about going off on her own?

Alice thought it over and decided that her own curiousity was at fault. She could only hope that Chesh still considered her a threat and would go to Hatter; the charm bracelet on her wrist was enough of a reminder of what she could do to the Cheshire. Having confidence in a proven murderer and potential sociopath didn't ease her tension and she rolled over on the pallet to her side.

There was enough light for her to see that she had been brought into a small house and put up into a loft. The walls were drab and the furniture shabby, the musky damp smell making her long to sniff and sneeze. There were voices, loud and arguing, down below however and she strained her hearing to try to overhear their conversation. If it was even the slightest hint of a way of getting her out of here, Alice was more than ready to try to hear it.

"We caught an Oyster that can beat up the big guy. Does anyone else think this is insane?" a man asked, his nasally voice carrying in the hollow house. Alice recognized him as Tot and she grinned in almost shameful delight when she realised that she scared him. He cleared his throat. "I think we ain't paid enough for this crap."

"It's a girl, that is all." A woman's voice this time and Alice had to struggle to remember her name. Snake... A strange name for a woman but Alice was getting used to code names used in Wonderland. "Who cares if she is an Oyster that can beat up Gregory? I can do that."

"No, not like that. You threaten and use your... 'techniques' to take care of people you don't like. This girl managed to get him to his knees physically. I don't like dealing with a girl like this," said Tot. "There's a possibility Dodo didn't tell us everything and you can imagine how that goes poorly on a normal day. But now we have the Looking Glass gone, the King's son missing... these are not 'normal times'."

"Your paranoia is almost contagious," Snake answered dryly. "We caught this one quickly enough and supposedly she was travelling with Hatter. Likely hired him on as a guide or something."

Alice shifted on the pallet and stirred up a small cloud of dust from the blankets she was lying on. Her nose began to itch impatiently and she lifted her hands, wincing when the chains tinkled at the movement. Pressing the top of her knuckles against her nose, she tried to hold in her sneeze.

"Rumour is that they are lovers," Tot said and there were grunts of agreement though Snake made a scoffing 'tsk'.

"He never liked Oysters. We all know better than to trust the rumours of Wonderland City. They also were telling stories that an Alice destroyed the White Queen, remember? For all we know she was actually killed by old age and pneumonia. The monarchy is always spinning tales to keep us running the caucus races, so to speak."

One of the other men spoke this time, "Ever the cynical disbeliever, Snake."

"I'm a realist. To the winning side and all that, or to the side that will prove stronger. Don't forget that," Snake commented and the other man made a coughing sound.

"Deceptive. Not that I'm complaining."

Alice couldn't hold it any longer and gave a loud sneeze, stirring up more dust from the blankets which then set her off into a quick series of sneezes. _Damn it!_ Alice thought, hearing the conversation grind to a halt below the loft. She hadn't heard enough to tell her very much about these kidnappers.

"Sounds like the Oyster has woken up. Get to your positions. I don't want anyone sneaking past our guards, am I understood?" Snake demanded and there were murmurs of agreement. Alice heard them all move around and with an annoyed sigh she turned over onto her back.

"I'll see how the Oyster is," Snake said loudly, alerting Alice to her intentions. She adjusted her weight and finally hauled herself upright so that she was seated with her back against the wall. She could just see over the edge of the loft and saw that the woman named Snake grinning up at her. "Awake there, sunshine?"

"Normally I stay unconscious longer but I don't think that would suit your plans," Alice snapped snidely. The woman's lips thinned, as if Alice had given her some grave insult, and she waved her hand at the remaining men around her. They were all the men from before, several still bearing the bruises when they had underestimated the thin girl in the loft. Looking more than a little annoyed, they began to disperse while Snake climbed the ladder to where Alice was sitting. She did it with incredible agility, reminding Alice of a cat with her sensuous movement.

Snake took a seat across from her, her face slightly shadowed by the hood she still wore. When she turned her head into the light Alice had to simply stare back. With her eyes clear in the bright lighting, her eyes, like a snake, were a bottomless black with no appearance of white or colouring like a normal human or Wonderlander might have.

The sight made Alice's warning bells go off in her mind and she knew instinctively that this woman was dangerous.

"So, you are the Oyster Dodo wanted us to detain." Her black eyes went over Alice intently from head to toe and she almost leered. "You aren't much."

"Maybe that's why I'm dangerous," Alice said, baited by the woman's shallow opinion of her. A dark brow lifted and the woman grinned. Slowly, she reached up and pushed the hood back, revealing unnaturally bright red and blonde hair that abruptly contrasted her black eyes. Her face was almost dainty, as was the rest of her bone structure. Tiny as Alice was, even she felt like she was outsized compared to her.

"Hardly, Oyster. You look like you've never even had to kill a man," she scoffed and the tone of her voice made it apparent that this was clearly a standard she held all people by. She leaned back in the chair and propped up her feet on the pallet where Alice still sat, dangling a key between her fingers. Her pointy shoes poked at Alice's thigh none too gently and she gestured for Alice to hold out her wrists. When the younger woman did so she quickly removed the chains. "So, what are you called?"

"Alice." She discreetly rubbed at her wrists to relieve the ache in them.

Unlike other people, Snake's expression never changed. Instead, like Hatter had, she gave her an unimpressed "Well aren't you special?" expression for her trouble. Alice cleared her throat and crossed her arms defiantly over her chest. "And who are all of you?" she demanded and the woman gestured to the room.

"The last remnants of the Southern Resistance. We run parallel to that archaic Quadrille, but our purpose here is for… other reasons. Most of us used to deal in the City but make the South our home." Those black eyes met Alice's and Alice had to force herself to stay still and not fidget at the directness of them.

"Snake's a code name, I take it?" she asked, not sure what the woman wanted her to say.

"Sort of." Snake slid her hand into one of her coat pockets, the old leather duster making dry crinkling sounds when it moved. Alice was repelled almost instantly when the other woman produced a tiny snake, similar to a corn snake but with fluorescent purple stripes down its blue body. It wrapped itself around her hand and she cooed at it the same way a woman may coo at her child. Snake noticed Alice's obvious discomfort and grinned. "Moondark Snakes. Not deadly but their venom produces some interesting... hallucinogenic side effects. They're often harvested by drug peddlers."

"Fascinating," Alice said, not meaning it.

"Very. I rescued this poor girl from a dealer on the dock street." The snake wove between her fingers and then went back up her sleeve. "She's still recovering, so she has no venom."

"That's sort of comforting," Alice admitted and Snake arched a brow.

"It wasn't meant to be. I should be the one you are worried about."

Alice gave her an insolent look. "Look, you don't scare me. I've dealt with the Queen of Hearts and her cronies, the Red King Archibades, and the White Queen, just for starters. Unless you are intensely magical or a master of torture, then I don't think I'm about to be scared of you alone."

Snake chuckled. "I do admire your spirit, Alice. I am a master...at making people disappear. Doesn't that frighten you?

"Hardly. I have friends that will come for me," Alice said defiantly and watched the woman's amusement seem to grow.

"How nice for you. But if I know one of these friends he is also rather adept at... failing sometimes. At least when it truly matters," Snake responded. Her smile was neither warm nor cold, merely a sort of decoration on her delicate features.

"Then we clearly don't know the same person," Alice said, unable to hide the emotion shining in her eyes. Snake seemed to misread it and instead she only noticed the faint gossamer glow to Alice's skin.

"So that part is true," she muttered, "you are one of those Oysters that glows. How... interesting."

"Why am I here?" Alice asked, trying to cut to the chase.

"Because I was told to bring you here." It was said simply, as if there was to be no question as to the need for Alice to be here.

"Are you going to let me go then? Or take me back to the City?" _Or kill me ._ It went unsaid but Alice knew that Snake understood what she really meant.

"It all depends on what information I collect on you, Oyster." Snake tipped her head on the side and flicked her tongue out across her lips several times. "As you can no doubt understand, I haven't actually had to get information from an Oyster before."

"What were you wanting to know?" Alice asked wearily and Snake blinked, stunned.

"You are a willing piece," she stated petulantly, as if Alice was ruining her fun. She lifted a hand and began to study her nails, almost pouting.

"I'm just tired of constant interrogations and know that you likely don't know why I'm wanted as it is," Alice answered and she watched the woman's face. Her lips thinned and an eyebrow quirked, telling Alice that she had guessed correctly. Clearly this Snake was only doing the grunt work and had no actual control. Which meant that unless she had been ordered to do so, she wouldn't likely hurt her until those orders came in.

At least, that was the logic Alice was preferring to believe in for now.

"You take the fun out of interrogation, making such guesses," Snake finally admitted. Her tongue poked out again, a nervous gesture that let Alice know she had struck a chord in her. She reached up and tugged on one of the thin braids in her hair, seeming to think something over. "Too bad we are on different pages so to speak. I rather like your obstinate nature. Makes you quite different than Wonderlanders."

"I've been told something like that before." Alice gave her a grin, feeling like they were reaching a common ground finally. Snake actually gave her a genuine smile this time, the change in her face making her very pretty. Alice still had the feeling that behind those black eyes of Snake's was a mind already working away at something else. She couldn't forget what she had overheard; Snake's own men had called her deceptive and Alice was smart enough not to dismiss that outhand.

She was on the verge of asking why this Snake obeyed Dodo without question when there was a sudden pounding on the door below the loft. The few men still around the main floor instantly swarmed the door to block it while Snake leaned over the side of the loft. Alice copied her, struggling to see around the men as the door was jerked open.

"Who're you?" one of the men demanded.

"Aren't you simply rude, not knowing who I am," a clear, rather cultured voice snapped in return. "I bet you most of Port Town knows who I am, and make no mistake as to that. Meanwhile, you're likely known to a few whores and pickpockets, eh?"

Snake groaned in annoyance and when Alice looked over at her she saw a strangely intense, yet grieved look on the woman's face. "Blasted man," Snake growled and was gone down the ladder in a heartbeat. Alice watched, not sure what else she could do, as Snake insinuated herself in the group of men. They separated around her, allowing Alice to see the tall man standing in the doorway. He was dressed in a similar manner to Snake, if not a bit more refined with his clothing still pristine and his hands, which he was gesturing animatedly with, were gloved. He looked out of place even to Alice.

"What in the Underworld are **you** doing here, Pidge?" Snake questioned and the man shrugged.

"Lookin' for someone. Someone you likely have hiding around here, if I know you," he answered. He moved away from the doorway, towering over the petite woman as he leaned in towards her.

Snake seemed to grow more agitated the closer he came. "Go play with jabberwocks, Pidge. I've got a job to do and you aren't allowed to interefere." Their voices dropped suddenly and Alice leaned over the side, straining to hear.

The feel of soft fur brushing her cheek made her jump back from the railing. As she scrambled for her footing, a pair of cat-green eyes appeared on the railing, then a wide smile, and finally a round feline head. Chesh seemed very proud of himself and she caught her breath.

"Chesh," she murmured and he cocked his head on the side.

"I do hope you appreciate my efforts. I appreciate your restraint in not taking one of my lives," he said, his silky voice almost condescending. "Pardon me."

He leapt off the loft side, disappearing into thin air once again, just as the group below seemed to come further into the room.

"I'm well aware of your legal rights, my girl, but... I'm afraid when you take something that belongs to someone else, you do tend to get a tangle of legalities," the man stated and Alice leaned back over the side. Snake was holding her head defiantly.

"Legalities? Please. This Oyster doesn't belong to anyone nor has any real connection that I could see."

"She's with me, and 'cor how I wish you people would let us alone."

Hatter's sudden voice made Alice's heart clench painfully in her chest and she watched as he came into her line of vision out of the doorway. Snake and her men visibly recoiled at the sight of him, though the man called Pidge merely grinned. Strangely, Snake almost seemed to be hiding behind one of her own men so that Hatter couldn't see her clearly.

"Hatter here is her guardian in Wonderland. So you can see how this is going to play out for you if you don't turn her over. Or we can take it to the Drawling Master to sort out," Pidge threatened. As Alice watched, the group seemed to become more worried by that threat. Clearly the Drawling Master, whoever that was, held a considerable weight with both the regular Wonderlanders and those that stayed on its edges, and that was a rare thing even in the City.

The man that Snake was hiding behind was being goaded forward and he crossed his arms over his chest, trying to appear casual. "Who's to say she is still here?" he tossed out and Hatter whistled under his breath.

"You really want to play that card?" he asked lowly and Alice realized it was time to speak up before this erupted into violence.

"What took you so long?" she asked loudly and watched as the group comically turned in unison. She grinned down, her eyes locked on Hatter's, and he shoved several men out of the way to cross the floor. Alice scooted down the ladder, almost falling in her eagerness, and was on the bottom rung when she felt a pair of strong hands grip her waist and help her down further.

Hatter had hold of Alice immediately and swung her into a hug that nearly bruised her ribs, he held her so tight. "I was worried to death when that shop was empty," he whispered against the top of her head. Alice smiled against his chest and lifted her chin to look him in the eye. His went over her, his joy at finding her almost contagious and for some unknown reason she had the urge to tell him about her condition. He just seemed so… happy but almost immediately she curbed that impulse. They weren't alone.

A rather incredulous Snake and the tall man Hatter had come in with were still watching them.

Hatter cupped her face. "You okay, luv? No bumps or bruises."

"Maybe a few bruises but…" Alice put her hand over his to calm that anger she could see simmering. She didn't want him losing control. "I'm fine, really. I think I did more damage to them."

"Hatter always did like girls who took care of themselves," Pidge said and he gave Snake a hard nudge in her ribs. It earned him a nasty look in return.

"Shut up, Pidge," she snapped. Alice felt Hatter stiffen, his hold feeling even tighter than before and he turned slightly toward Pidge and Snake while still holding her. His grip on her chin went slack for a moment before it settled into a caressing touch. The change was bewildering and Alice looked up at him curiously.

"Hello, Selena," Hatter said, his voice toneless. He was trying to hide something and Alice frowned, looking over at Snake. The woman eyed him in return and then gave Alice a grin that was very different than her earlier friendliness.

"Hatter. It has been a long time." She jutted her chin out at Alice. "Didn't realize she was with you in _that_ sort of way, considering how you thought so poorly of Oysters for years."

The venom in her voice was confusing for someone Hatter was looking at so quietly. To Alice, she almost sounded like… an ex.

"She changed my mind. Why'd you kidnap her?" he answered Selena, brushing her comments aside. She shrugged and Hatter rolled his eyes. "'Course, Dodo."

"Who else?" asked Pidge good-naturedly but he was staring at Alice. She blinked, looking back at him a bit uneasily, but his intensity dissolved into a dimpled grin. "Not going to introduce me, are you?"

He didn't wait for Hatter's stumbling reply but simply walked forward and took Alice's hand. "I'm Alastair 'Pidge' Pigeon, beautiful girl. I can see why Hatter is so enchanted by you," he murmured against her skin before planting a gentle kiss on her knuckles. Alice wasn't able to help the flush that came to her cheeks and she whispered a thank you, unintentionally coming across as coy. Hatter kept glancing between her and Pidge, his jaw ticking slightly and Pidge straightened up. His eyes met Hatter's and he gave him a grin. "You do have good taste, Hatter."

Alice continued to blush, not used to having that much attention. It did her ego good, especially when just minutes before the Snake had been discreetly hinting that she wasn't sure why Alice would appeal to anyone.

Hatter put his hand in Alice's and gave her a squeeze. "Yep. She's my girl… let's keep that in mind, eh?"

Pidge's wicked grin, which was eerily similar to Hatter's, simply grew. "Subtle but noted." He looked at Alice. "I like to window shop, but I don't trespass on other's... 'treacle'."

Selena gave a rude snort and then cleared her throat. "If you two are quite finished fawning over the Oyster…"

"My name is Alice, not Oyster." Alice was unable to keep the bite from her voice, her patience wearing thin. She couldn't understand this woman's animosity or the sudden change in her personality the moment Hatter walked in. She had her suspicions though but she wanted Hatter alone first before she actually spoke them.

"All the same to me," Selena said and gave a shrug. "As we were discussing before Pidge decided to pull his charm routine, Dodo wanted you both detained. But he didn't tell us why. Feel free to enlighten us."

Hatter gave Alice an encouraging look and she cleared her throat. "The short version? The Looking Glass was destroyed." The pair of them gave her a nod, showing that the South wasn't that far behind on the news. "My mom and a friend, Charlie, were kidnapped at the same time. For what reason, we don't know."

Selena and Pidge looked at each other. "That's strange," Pidge started slowly. He looked at Alice. "You're an Oyster through and through? No chance of Wonderland blood in your background?"

The absurd questions made her give him a look that spoke volumes and he shrugged. "Good thing to check. I thought I saw an Oyster a few days ago being transferred over from a train to one of the steam-busses. Thought it was odd but when I looked at her there was no… glow. Figured she might be a cross or something because Hatter did mention you glowed sometimes."

"She's not. I've got generations of grandparents that say otherwise."

"Her ma's not been marked. Could be the reason why. Alice is also aware of what she does and can do with that glow. Carol's been here a grand total of 5 days or so." Hatter thumbed his hat brim thoughtfully and he looked at Selena. "So, you goin' to hassle us?"

She gave him an arched look. "Maybe I should. I do owe it to you after all."

"Still haven't grown up, eh?" Hatter crossed his arms over his chest. "We need a place to stay the night. Feel free to let me know what you decide."

He took Alice by her elbow and started to lead her out, followed by Pidge. Selena darted around in front of them.

"You won't leave town?" she demanded. Hatter gave her a dry look.

"I know if I do you'll be ordered to track us down to kill us, and I can't say I want that. We've got enough to worry about with the Royals about to get on our tails and Wonderland knows who else. Do your checks and find us in the morning. I'd like for us not to part on bad terms but we will be leaving in the morning to try to find her mother. Let that rest on your consciences that she might die if we don't find her."

As if that ended that, he let go of Alice and pushed open the door, waiting for her. Alice looked at Selena with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, he gets like this," she started and the woman sniffed.

"Believe me, I know that well."

It was on Alice's lips to question her but Pidge was blocking her, forcing her to leave the small house with a slew of questions burning in her mind that would go unanswered for now.

It only made her more determined to question Hatter the moment they were alone.


	13. Open Pair

It was late by the time Alice and Hatter found themselves at a tiny town inn. Pidge had found them a room as a 'favour' to Hatter, but beyond giving Alice a few flirtatious looks, he didn't say much to her directly. The majority of his biting comments were left for Hatter. He and Hatter were clearly old acquaintances, that much she could judge on the way they spoke to one another, in similar accents and phrasing, though Pidge's accent was more refined. Hatter treated Pidge the way he may have treated Jack lately; kidded with him without any actual bite to his words, and Pidge returned Hatter's insults the same way. There was none of the deep unease that had had been there in the beginning with Jack or the obvious mistrust Hatter normally had for his own contacts within Wonderland.

It was when Pidge started teasing Hatter about being a misanthropist that Alice had to acknowledge a longstanding fact about her lover. He didn't have many friends and, mostly, that was through choice. Wonderland didn't offer much by way of creating friends or trusting relationships, she supposed. It was a cruel place: wonderful, bizarre, filled with almost mythological intensity… but in the end, Wonderland was utterly cruel to the very people who lived within its boundaries. Her experiences with the Queen of Hearts and the Taiga itself had revealed that and the longer she stayed, the deeper she became involved with Wonderland and its endless dangers, the more she felt the coldness of this place becoming a part of her. A coldness that she was still doing her best to put off so that she didn't become too much like a Wonderlander.

It made her feel a strange pity for Hatter and those that had lived in Wonderland all their lives. A pity that the only friendships they had were often proven by longstanding alliances and constant trials to gain trust. As untrusting as she was at times, even Alice knew that that was no way to live.

"You're quiet," Hatter said and Alice looked away from the window. They had managed to afford a small room on the highest floor of the misshapen inn, the slanted ceiling and rough floorboards a stark contrast to the comfortable furniture within the room. It was basic but as Hatter pointed out, they didn't need more room or luxury.

Alice turned from the window and saw that Hatter was scrubbing at his back awkwardly. There was no shower, only a small basin they could fill with clean water, and she had already scrubbed herself as clean as she could get. Her hair had taken long enough to wash but the feel of it being free from grit and smoke was too heavenly not to do so. Hatter had grumbled about having to deal with cold water but apparently he had sucked it up enough to wash. Considering she had threatened him with the offer of the floor instead of the bed should he choose to remain smelling like horse, sweat and smoke, it wasn't unlikely that he would given in. Hatter was a creature of comfort by nature and it made getting him to be clean rather easy.

"Quests, always quests," he was muttering to himself. "You get dusty, dirty… no proper place for a decent bath beyond an icy bucket of water. Not to mention dirty clothing that sticks to you and smells just as bad as you do."

Alice rolled her eyes at his grumbling. Her freshly scrubbed dress hung over the end of the bed and judging by the way Hatter's own shirt was looking, she'd have to do more makeshift laundry soon enough. His moodiness wasn't going to make questioning him any easier. He was still muttering irritably to himself.

"Then there is the food. Never enough food, you go hungry. Tell me again why we always get stuck 'questin'."

"Luck of the draw, short straw, bad card hand." Alice shrugged. "Not sure what else you want to call it."

"I call it Fate havin' it in for me," Hatter grunted out as he turned a half-circle, trying to get to one of the healing scratches on his back. He did it so quickly that his damp hair sent drops spiralling out to dot Alice's night-shirt and she had to bite back a few curses of her own.

Alice frowned, watching his hand as he moved. It hadn't healed properly yet, which was odd considering Hatter's almost supernatural ability to recover from injuries. She could still see the angry red mark marring his hand and could tell that the wound was looking sore. When he turned another circle while trying to reach around his shoulders, Alice sighed and put out her hands to his shoulders. She stopped his awkward movements and took the cloth from him, turning him around against despite his questioning look. She started to scrub at his back for him and heard an almost feline purr coming from him at the roughness of her actions. Smiling, she scrubbed a bit harder, gently around the marks but still hard enough that it massaged his muscles as well.

"Please tell me that this isn't some sort of foreplay between you two," Chesh growled out from his place on the dresser, his voice penetrating the blissful silence between them. They had forgotten him after their short supper down below and Alice realized that she had washed nearly naked in front of him. Her stomach clenched but she forced herself to remember that she couldn't reverse time and that what was done was done.

Still, the thought of Chesh watching her wash was disturbing even if he was a cat.

Hatter looked over his shoulder at the Cheshire, his eyes narrowing at the disruption in Alice scrubbing his back. Glancing at Alice, he could see that the cat had made her uncomfortable and cursed Chesh under his breath. He didn't want Alice self-conscious around him.

"You know, Alice," he said and waited for her to look at him. "We don't really need a peepin' tom." He grinned, delighted at his own joke though Alice huffed in exasperation. Hatter then looked at Chesh, who bristled instantly with his tail twitching furiously. "Like I said, cats make no sense compared to dogs. They growl when happy, wag their tails when angry."

"That's rich coming from you in regards to things making sense," Chesh commented. "You forget that I did retrieve you to save poor Alice from that odious woman."

"So you did. Because of that, I'm not pitchin' you out the window though that is tempting because I'd love to see if you bounce," Hatter said. Alice saw that Chesh's ears were now flattened totally against his skull, his green eyes almost glowing in warning. Hatter moved quickly though and grabbed Chesh by the scruff of his neck. "Be glad I'm the generous sort, cat."

Chesh yowled in fury, batting his legs back and forth comically but Hatter had too firm a grip on him with his right hand. Going to the one closet the room had, Hatter yanked it open and then plopped the cat down on the hardwood floor.

"Sweet dreams, and if you rip up that floor, I'll de-fur you. Got me?" He slammed the door before Chesh could respond and immediately Chesh continued to yowl and scratch at the door. Hatter winced and banged hard on it. "Knock it off."

"I can just imagine you with children," Alice commented dryly but clamped her mouth shut the moment she said it. Hatter showed no signs of really realizing what she said and gave her a grin.

"Worse I'll do is make them eat something you cook," he teased and she lifted a brow.

"You'd better be careful, because one more crack like that and the floor might be the only thing you're cuddling tonight." He pouted at her but Alice ignored him, moving to turn the covers down on the bed.

Hatter watched, wondering if he could coerce her to come back and help him finish washing up. Knowing that to be unlikely at the moment, he quickly grabbed the towel and rubbed at his arms and face. The yowling was finally done and he could hear Chesh grumbling in the closet; Hatter hoped that the cat would settle for the night. Hatter leaned up against the small table and watched Alice as she moved around, grabbing this or that. She seemed to be… 'nest-ier', in his opinion, and more so than normal. Back in their Taiga days, she had made do and never fussed once about their surroundings. Lately though, whenever they settled somewhere, whether it was on the train, on horseback, or in this room, she was always trying to make things more comfortable.

Not that he was bothered by it but even he had noticed it wasn't a thing like what his Alice would normally do.

Hatter tipped his head on the side and ran his eyes over her from head to toe. In fact, she had changed a bit more than just the nesting, he had just been too preoccupied to really notice it. Now that he could take the opportunity, Hatter wondered if he had been a little bit too dense and unobservant lately. For Alice had changed and not just by her moods or latest habits. The long shirt she was wearing had parted around her bare legs and was gathered tight at her waist and he blinked at the sight. He could tell by the swell to her breasts alone that her body was changing. He debated on asking Alice if she had become more… voluptuous, a change he enjoyed but definitely noticed over the past few weeks. Alice had never taken his teasing comments that she was a bit thin well and he had the feeling if he said she was looking 'lush', she'd likely kill him.

 _Clever,_ Hatter thought to himself, _to ask your girl if she's getting curvier and she'll hear that as 'you're getting fat.'_

A master of self-preservation, Hatter wisely kept his mouth shut and instead smiled as he watched her begin to brush her long dark hair. She noticed him staring at her and smiled uncertainly back. "What?" she asked and he shrugged.

"You know me; I like to watch you. All the sames I get to see, which is nice and novel you know, but I also like all the… changes," he offered, trying to offer her a chance to tell him why she had started to become all domesticated lately. She didn't though, and instead looked down at her lap as she ran the brush through her hair again. Sighing, Hatter went over and sat behind her, taking the brush. She looked over her shoulder at him and he grinned. "Least I could do since you did scrub my back, eh?"

When she didn't protest, he began to brush her hair, working through the tangles meticulously.

She was quiet for a few minutes, enjoying his touch and the surprising gentleness in his brushing. The strangely peaceful moment was a respite from the hectic day and she found the sweeping action of the brush relaxing enough that her mind could wander. However, it allowed her thoughts from earlier about these people and this confusing mess to come to a forefront now. It could be one of the few chances she had to pin him down to get the facts out of him

"So who are all these people?" she asked.

"Rebels from the South, part of Dodo's group. Spy network really. Pidge runs the South East Quarter, known him since we were both nothing more than gophers for the Resistance," Hatter answered while working on a perplexing tangle.

"He's your friend." She stated it as a fact and Hatter shrugged.

"Suppose you could say that. Wouldn't trust him as far as I can throw him but he's one of the better ones. Unlike much of the Resistance, he was honest about his reasons for being in it; he wanted a life again. He lost it when he lost his family long time ago and he's haunted by it."

"Sort of like you," Alice muttered and she heard him sigh.

"Bit different-like. Our choices make us who we are and in that he and I differed on opinion. I left the Resistance formally, despite my helpin' them but he… he stayed. It takes a lot to push Pidge to anything and when he believes in a cause, he sticks by it," Hatter explained and he worked on another damp knot.

"Noble," Alice muttered and rotated her shoulders to ease the ache in them. Hatter put the brush down and rubbed at the nape of her neck, suddenly dropping his mouth to press a kiss to the side of her head.

"I guess." She could hear the faint irritation in his voice and decided that her interest in Pidge was something he didn't want to hear. Besides, she had another question that, to her, was more pressing.

"So you know Pidge... and you know this Snake? Selena?" she asked. She would have to have been completely oblivious not to feel the sudden tension that went up Hatter's body.

"Knew her, yeah." Hatter's hands loosely bracketed her hips and she turned around in his arms. The tone of his voice was disinterested but Alice knew him better. He was hiding something and doing it badly.

"How?" she persisted and he finally met her eyes.

"You aren't going to let this go, are you?" he asked wearily. She arched a brow defiantly, letting him know that she wasn't in just that look alone. Alice had a feeling that this was something important; important enough that Hatter was not sure he should be hiding it. Hatter set her away from him and stood up, going over to his discarded shirt. He slid it on, almost like he needed it as a form of armour against her, and the importance of the gesture wasn't lost on Alice. While he leaned up against the door she went and sat further back on the bed, crossing her legs to wait for his explanation.

It seemed to take him a while to collect his thoughts and Alice was on the verge of encouraging him again. But he spoke suddenly, his voice sharp and yet somehow almost too casual. "I met Selena when we were kids, just after my fourteenth actual birthday. The Resistance took in the orphans the Queen's takeover made, and we were part of that group. Dodo put us in the same quadrant of the Resistance to act as spies. Anyone of value was kept in the South part of Wonderland City so all of us had to live together. We worked together and had to live together, that's all."

Alice could see that that was definitely not all.

"She seemed upset to see you," she pointed out.

"We didn't end on good terms. Happens with friends," he argued and Alice sighed, looking down at her fingers.

"Hatter, I'm not blind or deaf. There is something else and if you don't tell me, I guarantee you that she will if she thinks it could hurt you and she'll make it worse," Alice said, keeping her voice low and severe. She was speaking from experience: both from her previous relationships and from her time in Wonderland. The message she was giving him was clear and Hatter rubbed his hand over his face.

"All right, all right... you want the truth about what she was to me. Which isn't always the best course of action, may I remind you but if you really have to know... We were together at one point, just before I left the Resistance when I was in my earlier twenties. But it ended when I left and ever since then we've never spoken nor wanted to, at least on my side of things."

Alice almost reeled from his words; her suspicions were confirmed but that didn't mean she had wanted them to be. "You were... together? Like...together...how...?"

"Exactly how you're probably thinking," Hatter finished for her. He was being blunt now, watching her warily to see how she might react. Alice looked back down at her hands and swallowed.

"I see."

"Natural, I guess," Hatter mused to himself aloud. "We were kids, lonely kids. Majority of that group were involved with each other in one way or another. She and I matched up because we were alike, same reason as why Pidge and I were such good mates. We came from similar families that were wiped out of the books."

Alice shut her eyes, not wanting to hear that. She pressed a hand to her stomach and rubbed there self-consciously. "What ended it?" she asked.

Hatter tipped his head back and let it thud against the door. "My leaving the Resistance among other things. If you want the truth, Alice, I left because I didn't like what the Resistance was doing to us. She went from an innocent to an assassin quickly; she loved the kill and that terrified me, I'm ashamed to admit it. Workin' with her meant watching people get hurt or killed…or worse, and after a while, I couldn't stomach it anymore."

She was quiet for a long time and Hatter eventually looked back down at her. "Alice?"

"Hmm? Sorry, my mind is still stuck on the fact that you have an ex in South Wonderland and that that clearly wasn't important enough for you to mention it to me. Added to that is that you didn't think to tell me that you had long standing history with her that was a bit more than an old contact," Alice bit out sharply. Hatter exhaled slowly when he noticed her cold, blank face, and he sensed her anger more than saw it in her expression.

"Alice, that was a very long time ago."

"I think meeting your ex-lover and not knowing who she was the first time we met - making me feel a bit foolish- is a bit of a sticking point for me, don't you?" Alice demanded and Hatter stared at her.

"I was bound to have exes, Alice. I mean, judging by my ability in bed, I would have had a few women that I would need to practice on, eh?" he joked but she gave him a stern look that meant that this was no time for jokes.

"But still... Hatter, it just occurred to me that you have never once spoken about any one being close to you. That anyone had gotten close to you before."

He scoffed. "Don't be naive, Alice. Sex doesn't equal intimacy in Wonderland." As if he had struck her, Alice flinched and he back-pedalled immediately over his words. "Alice, even you have to admit that sex doesn't always equal love in your world either."

"I suggest stopping now before she beats the life out of you," Chesh suddenly piped up from the closet.

"Shut up!" Hatter and Alice yelled in unison at him through the door and immediately their floor was banged by the occupants below.

"Oi! Some of us are tryin' to get a decent night's sleep down here!" a man shouted, echoed by several other voices. Alice waited for the ruckus to end before she looked back up at her lover.

"Hatter, I don't think it's the sex or whatever it was that you shared with this woman...or any other woman that bothered me." She twisted her fingers into a nervous knot, knowing that she was lying through her teeth. "But you're keeping things from me and I don't like it. It got us into a world of trouble a year ago. Imagine what it could do now."

"Alice," Hatter began but she was looking away from him, grabbing her hairbrush and beginning to rigourously yank it through her damp hair. Pursing his lips in annoyance, Hatter began to clean up instead. It had always hung between them that there were some things he just didn't want to tell her but confronted with it, even he had to admit that he seemed like an ass.

Alice, on the other hand, had always been open about her past boyfriends with him because she had assumed he wanted to know. Yet he had never really cared, except about Jack, because he knew that those men were no competition for him; else-wise they would be here with her, not him. Hatter didn't think that any of the women in his past would matter, because in his mind they didn't to him compared to Alice. So this new barrier had to be hurdled over but Hatter just wasn't sure how to do it with Alice.

Sitting on the bed, Alice finally couldn't brush her hair anymore and set the brush on the floor. She knew that Hatter was only pretending to be preoccupied but her mind was still stuck on this new revelation to Hatter's past. His formative years, something she had been curious about, had been shared by a woman Alice knew in her heart could be dangerous. A woman Alice had seen stare at them both with jealousy and anger and she knew that, despite what Hatter thought, things had not been so simple when he had ended that relationship. He could be so wonderfully oblivious sometimes as to his effect on people, both positive and negative, and Alice had to wonder just how this past relationship had actually ended. It likely hadn't been an easy break and she knew him well enough to know that something was likely said or done to make it very permanent.

Some evil imp in her mind whispered that maybe, just maybe, he had done it to protect this Selena. Had he done it out of love and pined for this woman during the years after this break-up before he had met Alice? Had he been so caught up in his own nobility that he had really loved this woman deeply enough to let her go? He had tried something like that on Alice to protect her from his curse. It was a jealous thought that wasn't anything like Alice's normal ones and she forced it from her head. That time had been different. Their situation had been different.

Oddly, in their time together, Alice had never felt terribly jealous over Hatter. It had never really crossed her mind to be jealous about him since he never gave her reason to be. Which for a woman with as many control problems as she had was a good thing. She had been so secure in his love for her for the past year and even the increasingly amorous flirtations of the Flowers had meant nothing.

But now faced with this mysterious woman who had shared Hatter's years in the Resistance, who had been his lover for several of them judging by what she had been told, Alice was feeling a dark stab of jealousy. It twisted painfully like cruel knife and she was almost ready to question him further about it. Hatter had never expounded on his past and that made her imagination rear its ugly head about what his relationship to this Selena had been. How it might have been and what could have been shared between them.

Alice pulled her knees up to her chin and watched Hatter as he checked over their room. He was clearly finding it hard to find more things to do and she sighed. It wasn't really fair to punish him for his past and she knew she was acting like the very sort of girlfriend she tried to avoid being.

"We should probably get some sleep," Hatter offered after checking the locks for the tenth time.

"Not when we're upset," Alice answered and watched as he turned ever so slowly on his heel.

"I'm not sure what you want me to say," he admitted. "I'm sorry?"

"That'd be a good enough start." Alice fiddled with the buttons on her shirt. Hatter was eyeing her suspiciously again, not knowing where this change in mood was coming from. He walked until he was nearer to the bed, still out of reach in case her mood erupted into pillow bashing.

"Yeah, I was with her at one point. We shared a thing I guess. Had to for it to go on for a few months," he said and watched as her face fell a bit. He sighed. Despite Alice's bravado, he knew that her self-confidence was a delicate thing on the whole and he reached out, fingers brushing her cheek. "But Alice..."

At his gentle caress her chin lifted and he could see her trying to hide her shaken confidence. Hatter leaned down a bit further and brushed his thumb against her lips. " I'm telling you the truth, Alice, when I say that when we parted ways and especially since I met you that I haven't thought about Selena or the others for that matter. She isn't who I've fought so hard to be respectable for, or the one who I would go on insane quests like this for."

"Better," she muttered for encouragement, giving him a shaky smile.

Hatter took that as a good sign. "She isn't who I lie beside at night and who I miss if we get separated. She isn't who I'm thinkin' about right now, Alice. I never even breathed word that I might marry her at some point for that matter."

Alice stared stupidly up at him and he held up a cautioning hand. "I'm not asking you right now 'cause it's not the right time in the least. One of us should be sensible in this and I'm going to be that one. It was just a statement to prove my point."

"I hate when you make such sense, especially when I want to be angry with you for a while longer."

Hatter backed away, smiling as he went to make sure the closet door was properly locked. He didn't want to chance Chesh getting out to make trouble. "We need to get sleep, I think. Our nerves are gettin' all matter of frayed and I'm not a fan of bein' jittery."

He turned around to see that Alice was undoing the rest of her night-shirt's buttons, shrugging the fabric down her arms with an artlessly seductive movement. Once it was off, she slid her fingers up her own breasts to rub at her shoulders, her pale skin glimmering in the dim light of the lamps. She was watching him intently, smiling at his half-open mouth and the way his eyes went over her. He had the habit of making her feel like he had never seen her naked before and that it was the best moment in his life. It did worlds of good for her ego.

"You're right," Alice thought aloud, "we should definitely get some sleep."

She slid up the bed and sat against the headboard, her dark hair settling over one of her breasts. Hatter thought she looked like some sort of night fairy in the way she glowed and he had to swallow the dry lump in his throat at the sight of her. He ruffled his own hair and then cleared his throat.

"Sleep would be good." His head tipped on the side, his eyes raking hotly over the length of her bent legs. "But so would makeup sex."

"So now you think I want makeup sex with you?" she teased and he came to the edge of the bed, lowering his knees so that he knelt at her feet on the mattress. Tracing one hand up from her toe to the edge of her knee, Hatter judged her reaction and knew she was putting up a tough front.

"Don't you, my Alice?" he retorted and their eyes met, his dark while hers stayed bright. There were signs of laughter there again and it was a sight that relieved him. Finally she had to break the stare and lowered her eyes before looking back up at him through her lashes.

"Arrogant Wonderlander, we weren't even fighting." The pet name made her feelings clear and he surged forward onto his knees, claiming her mouth with his in a bruising kiss. Alice met him with her own force, immediately wrenching the shirt he had thrown on back off his body before she ran her hands up his arms. The kiss was brutal enough that he felt her bite into his lip hard enough to sting and with a faint grunt he leaned back, stunned. Alice cupped her hands around his face and gently leaned in to kiss the bite-mark.

His hands ran back up her legs, tracing a teasing path that made her lift up against him, and Hatter settled more comfortably down against her. As cold as the room was, Alice was remarkably warm and Hatter watched his own fingers dance a path along the glowing skin of her ribcage. He could feel her panting against the top of his head and when her body arched again he nipped gently at the top of her breast. Despite her moans, Alice was still able to move her hands between them to unbutton his trousers and shove them back down his hips. He wasn't able to focus with the way her hands roamed possessively over his body, the sensations as incredible as they were distracting when she coupled her movements with a kiss against his earlobe.

She took advantage of his sudden distraction and clasped her thighs tightly around his waist. The squeeze warned him and he lifted his head to stare at her just before she flipped them over. Hatter's teeth clenched in frustration when he felt the silken heat of her brush over his abdomen, and knew that she was teasing him deliberately. Yes, she may have been accepting of his past but this was not like their normal foreplay.

Alice confirmed it by grabbing his hands and pinning them to the mattress on either side of his head. Smiling she bent her head and kissed him, her mouth pulling at his demandingly. Her fingers slowly released his hands, trailing up and down his arms. Alice broke the kiss, nudging his head up with her mouth as she nipped at the pulse throbbing in his throat and knew that he was just as badly affected by this as she was. Unable to resist teasing him the way he had teased her on the train, she slid her body down so that her breasts brushed over his chest again and again. Her nipples hardened to aching at the movement and she moaned against his neck, sucking a bit harder than intended on his collarbone. When she lifted her lips from his skin she could see the faint bruise forming and had to smile at the mark before bending her lips back down and doing it again.

She felt his control snap like a sprung cord and before she could think to hold him down he shoved her hands away from his wrists and sat up. His mouth found hers and he kissed her, parrying the fierce thrust of her tongue with his own. Hatter's shoulders trembled and she felt his hands cupping her thighs and lifting her. Alice gave a breathy gasp as he entered her, hearing his answering moan and a faint curse.

Shoving him back down, Alice clenched her thighs tightly on either side of his hips before letting her head fall back. Her hips continued their slow but forceful rhythm. There was an aggression in her that had no hint of play in it and Hatter's fingers dug into her hip bone to try to soften her rhythm. There was no changing it though and when she moaned as if his touch had scalded her, he knew that he didn't want to try any further. His right hand slid up to cup her throat gently, bracing her, and Alice's hands slid back along his thighs to where they met her buttocks. The gasps and moans filled the tiny room and Hatter knew his briefly regained self-control was fading as Alice's fingers dug into his skin.

His grip slid from her neck to the back of her head, tangling his fingers in her hair. He pulled hard enough that her head fell further back and he sat up again, his stomach clenching as her nails slid across it. Teeth grinding in concentration, Hatter tried hard to control his reaction to her roughness but Alice's body was demanding he follow along. His own was too willing to follow her lead and he tugged on her hair harder, hearing the gasp she gave and feeling her nails dig harder and harder into his own thighs.

"Damn it," he muttered against her collarbone, his hips speeding up impatiently. Alice chuckled and shook her head to dislodge his grip. Her own hand raised and buried in his hair, holding his mouth against her neck. The aggressiveness of her lovemaking was making him groan against her skin and she cried out against his ear, making it clear that this was not going to slow down. Her voice dropped, whispering in his hear, begging him not to stop and Hatter wasn't certain he could if he wanted to. Hatter heard Alice groan against his ear and felt her fingers tighten in his hair with a warning tug that let him know she was close. Stifling a cry that threatened to escape, he forced her head to lower and kissed her. The strength of the kiss clicked their teeth together painfully but Hatter had no intention of breaking the kiss as Alice's aggressiveness nearly melted under the onslaught. She was gasping into his mouth and he felt her body suddenly clench all around him like a vice.

Her cry was muffled against his mouth and he absorbed it hungrily, feeling the tension draining from her body bit by bit. Knowing she had found her release made it easier to give into his and he yanked her closer, thrusting blindly up at her until he felt as drained as she was.

They stayed upright, Alice wrapped around him like a familiar blanket with him cuddled as close as he could. Her breath was hot against the top of his head, sending a breeze through his sweat-soaked hair and making him shiver. Hatter felt boneless, drained to the point of exhaustion, and finally just lay back down, collapsing in relief while Alice simply lay on top of him. Her dark hair covered his chest and he shakily reached out to brush a few of the damp strands away from her face.

Alice pressed her ear against his chest, lulled into a sense of security by his rapid heartbeat and by his tight embrace. His right hand was stroking up and down her back, a slow rhythm that made her relax and forget their previous tensions. By the time her breathing finally slowed she had to give him credit. Another man might have been a bit overwhelmed but he handled it without care or obvious worry; a year's worth of practise would do that, she supposed in private amusement. They had been rough with one another before, mostly in a playful fashion but this time there had been an almost desperate aggression that she hadn't thought she had in her. Her need to make sure he belonged to her had hit her hard and she hadn't expected things to escalate that roughly or quickly.

_Though it had been enjoyable..._

Taking in a deep breath, Alice lifted her head and stared down at him. His eyes were still very dark but more curious this time.

Alice cleared her throat. "I should move," she muttered and went to do so but his hands were suddenly holding her hips tightly against him.

"Don't," he warned and she looked at him. He gave her a half-grin. "I like you right there as much as I like being there."

Gratefully, she leaned back down and rested her head just beneath his chin. She wasn't able to keep the yawn from coming out. "Wake me if I get too heavy," she whispered and he chuckled.

"Please, Alice. You're as light as feather, like you always are, luv."

"I might not always be, you know," she mumbled and he stiffened.

"How's that?" he asked, his voice soft as he waited for her . But she was already asleep, drained by the day, and Hatter sighed. Really, she was the most perplexing woman he knew.

That thought made him love her all the more and he wrapped her more tightly into his arms as he pressed his cheek against the top of her head. He had no intention of waking her nor of letting her go during the night, not when today had frightened him so badly. Lulled by her warmth, he let his eyes close and slowly he fell asleep, never once loosening his grip on her.

* * *

Standing in the building across the alleyway, Selena slid her hands along the windowpane before she tightened them into fists against the cold glass. She had decided to stay here to be certain that neither Hatter nor this Alice disappeared and she hadn't trusted her own obviously incompetent guards with something so important. She remembered Hatter as being slippery and she doubted that the years had changed that. Her own sources were running background checks, as well as messages to Dodo, and she would know within a few hours if their little jaunt into the South was legit or not.

What she would do if they were honestly pursuing another rebel group Selena couldn't be certain. She had her orders though Dodo hadn't been exactly honest about this with her. The lack of information made her belief in the older man shaky at best and she wondered what else he was hiding.

It hardly mattered that much compared to the shock she had been given by the reappearance of Hatter in the company of the Oyster. Hatter had been so changed and it was clear that he was not regretting his leaving the Resistance years earlier. Not only that, but clearly there was something deeper going on between the two. She would have to been blind not to notice the looks that had passed between the two. There had still been just enough doubt remaining though that she hadn't believed they were more than friends. She knew him, knew that his distaste for Oysters had to do with his family background though he never expounded upon that. The Hatter she had known had hated dealing with Oysters and had always worked hard in the Resistance to keep them from coming through. It was why she had set up her spyglass to watch their window and why she had sat here for the better part of an hour, curious as to the nature of their relationship.

The revelation she had been given was now why she felt so numb.

She hadn't quite been prepared for what she accidentally witnessed when Hatter and Alice had collided together on the bed. At first she had looked away, shocked and embarrassed by the sight; two emotions that she had thought that with all her training she would never feel again. Feeling like a fool, she had watched only the tail-end of their lovemaking and seethed within, jealousy burning so fiercely inside of her that she had to keep herself from smashing something. Selena hadn't felt this intensely in a long time and emotions were never something that she had savoured. So Pidge hadn't been lying to her; the pair were together and in the most intimate of ways. Hatter, who had once told her that he was not about to get attached to anyone or anything, had become attached to this skinny Oyster with big blue eyes.

Selena raked her nails down the glass, causing a high-pitched sound that made the men in the room beside her cringe. The two guards had wisely kept their eyes to the floor as if they sensed her anger, but the other pair of men seemed amused by her display of emotion. They were older though and far more experienced than her guards, years spent in service to various organizations having made them more than a little savvy to how to survive in Wonderland. Their self-confidence was mutual and they shared an almost identical mindset, which made sense as they were identical in every way and mannerism.

"Stimulus added to certain situations occasionally changes the moods and beliefs of some," said the one short man, tipping his bald head on the side to peer at his twin.

"Contrariwise, removing stimulus sometimes never changes a thing," his companion retorted. He was seated on the bench across from Selena, repairing an old child's rattle. Selena stared at the pair of them, debating on the best way to answer their riddles. She didn't know much about either, just that she had been ordered to let them tag along and that in itself made her uncomfortable.

"Selena?" It was one of her own men this time. She turned and saw that he was equally as nervous about these men as she was, though she hid it better.

"What is it?" she asked and he jerked his head back at the window. None of her men had dared to ask what had been going on but they had seen that whatever had happened had clearly bothered their normally icy leader.

"Does _this_ change anything to the plan?" he questioned and she looked in the direction of the window. She could just make out in the distance Hatter stroking Alice's hair from where she was sleeping on top of him and Selena had to look away. The sight sickened her, but so did the jealousy she could feel gnawing at her insides.

"Not a thing has changed. We go ahead with the plan," she bit out with angry venom in her voice. The sort that made the two twins look at one another and give malicious grins that spoke volumes about their intentions. Selena was only a means to an end to them and they were willing to go along with her plans to suit their deeper purposes.


	14. Curious Attitudes

"The other Messenger's called Hatta. I must have two, you know - to come and go. Once to come, and one to go." The voice was almost hysterical, floating in and around the darkness, going from one direction to another with the inconsistency of a ghost. Almost immediately, the voice gave way to a sing-song poem which was sung by a chorus of different voices that were led by a girlish, piping high voice,

'The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown: The Lion beat the Unicorn all round the town. Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown; Some gave them plum-cake and drummed them out of town.'

During the singing there was a faint echo of swords clashing and guns exploding in the distance; it was almost vibrating in the darkness it was so loud. Almost as if accenting the rhymes, a lion roared at the same time the word 'town' was spoken followed by a maniacal screaming that was full of agony and madness. The screaming faded in its intensity and after a few moments of blissful silence the darkness began to rock violently, shimmering with many different colours and shadows and accompanied by the sound of falling rocks. Standing in the middle of such noise, Hatter resisted the urge to be more alarmed than he already was.

There was no point in openly showing his concern though; this wasn't real.

Hatter's mind knew that he was stuck in a dream; or a nightmare. It was hard to distinguish between the two with such a blaze of darkness and light flashing before his eyes like a strobe in a club. For what had felt like hours he had been standing in the middle of this madness, trying to determine how he could best define the strangeness around him. He was stuck in a dark hallway, one that was lit by different coloured lanterns and lined with a grass carpet that felt wet beneath his bare feet, and Hatter wondered which hallway this was supposed to be. The hallway was surrounded by multiple doors that went the length of the hallway as far as he could see in the shadows and each one he tested had been locked though the knobs would turn perfectly. His attempts at escape had been fruitless; there was no way of moving backward to where he had come. How could he go back when he didn't know or remember how he had ended up here in the first place?

The hallway was not only lined with doors and grass but the walls were also stacked high with books and papers so that there was nothing bare for him to see. The books had been the same titles he had read as a child and young adult: The Shining Crocodile, Lake Prison Warfare, Extraction and its Purposes... the small sampling he had checked had revealed books he had read at some point in his life. This only further strengthened his belief that he was stuck in his own mind, since he rarely dreamed normal dreams as it was. Dreams for him usually showed slices of his past or the dizzying darkness in his own mind, so this was nothing out of the ordinary. Tracing his hand along the wall, he had to wait until one of the travelling lights flew by his head before he caught a glimpse of the title of one of the books lying on the nearby pile: The First Five Hundred Years of Rule. Hatter stared at it, the title nagging at him impatiently because he knew he had seen it before.

A dodo bird suddenly went squawking by him, unfettered by the darkness of his dream and like a switch, Hatter knew why the book was familiar. Dodo had had one just like it in his personal rooms but why was it cropping up in his dreams? History, while it had been thumped into him, was something Hatter remembered only in bits and pieces because he had had to learn more important things over the course of his life. As if realizing that Hatter was not interested in the book, the dodo paused mid-stride and turned on its awkwardly bent legs until it stared at him, feathers bristling in irritation. Hatter stared back, not sure what he was supposed to do when his mind was playing such tricks on him. Yellow eyes went over him from head to toe and then the bird squawked impatiently at him. Turning sharply on its talons, it ruffled its own feathers before going to one of the doors and knocking on it fiercely with its crooked beak. It continued to repeat the action for three more knocks before looking back at Hatter again. When Hatter didn't move it squawked in irritation and scratched at the ground with its foot like a chicken. It knocked again and again, never once looking away from Hatter as if to encourage him to go to the door and as he realized what the bird expected, he shook his head.

"Takin' ideas from a dream dodo. Must still be mad. High possibility, considering my family," Hatter said to himself and with a resigned sigh he approached the bird. Strangely, the closer he came the more agitated the dodo bird became until it finally screeched and flapped its wings threateningly at him. It was acting as if his mere presence had started to irritate him and Hatter couldn't understand the change in its mood. The dodo's neck snaked out and opened its beak to deliver a fierce bite but Hatter was instinctively ducking to the side, his right hand catching the throat in his hand. The dodo continued to try to bite him with loud snaps of its powerful beak but the leather collar that appeared around its neck only diverted Hatter's attention. There was a mirror dangling from the snap ring, reflecting the light with a curious amount of intensity. Even without touching it, he knew that it was sharp-edged and when the dodo tried harder to get to him Hatter's hand was sliced by the swinging piece of mirror. He grabbed at the collar to hold the bird further away and it snapped quickly in his grip, the dodo breaking free as well. Instead of attacking him, it simply gave him a foul look before squawking again and trotting back off down the dark hallway.

Hatter paid the bird no mind and instead looked down at the collar in his hand. The mirror was coated in his blood, its light muted down but still shining. For a moment, Hatter stared at his own reflection and wondered about the clarity of his dream-state The clothing was nothing like what he normally wore; simple black without a hint of eccentricity and even his hair had changed to longer strands that were just starting to dread around his face. Even his face seemed more gaunt and pale while his eyes appeared to be hollowed out; all signs of an exhaustion he didn't actually feel, which made him all the more confused as to what it meant. The sight was disturbing and with a disgusted click of his tongue he threw the dodo's collar to the ground and promptly stamped the mirror emblem into the soft grass beneath his feet.

A sharp pain flared suddenly in his right hand and he gasped, clutching his wrist with his left to brace it. His hand snapped up in reflex and he had to hold on tighter when his fingers clenched. The agony in his hand was so acute that he bent over at the waist and dug his left fingers into his hand, trying to ease the pain that felt like it was burning his nerves. He tucked his hand tight against his stomach and tried to bury the pain down but his hands were shaking in pain. The pins and needles sensation that followed the fiery burn forced him to grit his teeth and lean back against one of the nearby doors. He began to suck in deeper breaths which seemed to ease the panic the pain caused and, after gaining some control, Hatter put his head against the ice-cold wood of the door. Oddly, the swirling colours around him seemed to swell with the pain in his hand and he forced his eyes to focus on the glaringly red cut on the back of his hand, the travelling lights making it easier to distinguish his own body from the surrounding darkness.

His hand was bleeding from the wound on the back of it: a gaping cut that throbbed with each twitch of his fingers and he could feel the warm blood starting to drip from the cut. Breathing out heavily through his nose, Hatter used his fingers to gently touch the ridges of the wound and as if recoiling from his fingers, the skin pulled back to reveal bone and muscle that was obvious even in the inconsistent light. The sight made him lift his head and swallow down the bile that rose in his throat before he gave in to the urge to vomit. The skin seemed to just be peeling off now though with each touch of his fingers; he could feel the blood oozing more freely now and the muscles in his hand were aching unbearably.

"It's just a dream," he resolved aloud, determined to forget the wound in his hand. "Just a dream. It isn't real."

"Just a dream, it isn't real," a mocking voice chimed out from the other side of the door he was leaning on. The voice was muffled but it was strangely clear enough so that he knew it wasn't just his own mind echoing back at him. Hatter leapt away from the door, clutching his hand close to his chest to protect it because, dream or not, the pain felt real enough that he couldn't risk exposing himself to more of it.

The door he had been leaning against was made from old decaying oak boards, cracked straight down the middle so that there were faint slivers of lights coming through the door. It looked ready to fall apart in was in such a state of disrepair. With a glance at the other more pristinely kept doors, Hatter tipped his head on the side and winced as a swirl of neon light flashed before his eyes from the crack in the door. He had to wait until the lights dimmed back into shadows before he could get a good look at the old door to see a way in. The latch was broken from what he could see and set in a more old-fashioned way than the other doors around him. There was an old fashioned keyhole beneath a broken latch and curiosity pulled at him insistently.

"Just a dream, what harm could it do?" Hatter muttered to himself as he bent over and tried to peer through the keyhole. He could see nothing but silver light through the keyhole and he squinted harder, feeling more than a little bit foolish.

An eye suddenly peered back at him and he jumped back from the door, startled enough that he slammed back into the door just behind him. Inexplicably, the second door's brass hinges seemed to come undone from their places and wrapped themselves around his arms, trapping him like well made shackles. Panic flooded him instantly and he fought these new shackles. But the door, once inanimate, seemed to have a life of its own and it held on tighter if possible, the shackles so tight that they bit into his wrists. A new band of brass appeared out of thin air to wrap around his throat and pin him against the door. The blood on his right hand began to run more freely now, and the agony of it made him almost sag against the door in pain.

The door across from him creaked open, inch by slow inch in a way that caused more anxiety than Hatter would ever admit to. Neon blue lights streamed in from yet another hallway on the other side of the door but the lights were momentarily eclipsed by another shadow. It moved slowly and the door the shadow had come through closed with a loud, ricocheting slam. It was a struggle but Hatter's eyes adjusted slowly to the change in light and after a few moments he was able to focus beyond the blinding pain in his hand.

The shadow was no more than a tiny woman barely to his shoulder but when she came closer Hatter felt an instinctive fear that he couldn't explain.

It was hard for him to look her over as she approached him. The sight of her was just too hard to describe for him and his brain couldn't seem to be able to tell him what he should be thinking. Her head turned this way and that as she looked at their surrounds, and with each turn of her head he was lost as to whether she was exceptionally beautiful or the ugliest woman he had ever seen. There was no way of knowing and his mind reeled from the confusion of her very looks. The woman's silvery crop of curls accented the sharpness to her features and the cat-like curve to her green eyes merely enhanced her exoticness. Yet her face continually blurred whenever he thought he was getting a good look at her and when she finally focussed her unnaturally jewel-like eyes on him, he had to look away. She came closer still and eventually reached out to touch him with thin fingers that felt like talons, her nails tracing the curve of his jaw thoughtfully. The intensity of her studying made him feel strangely self-conscious and Hatter focussed his gaze on the dark tunnel in the distance to avoid letting her know how badly it bothered him to be stared at like some insect she wanted to dissect.

She spoke after a while, her voice low and strangely harmonic in its rhythm. "You're not very much but you'll do in a clutch."

Her finger forcefully tipped his head the other way and she leaned in. There was a strange smell to her: familiar and musky, an odour like fresh dirt and damp leaves. Hatter cringed when she brushed her nose against his cheek and inhaled, the feel of her finger on his face was similar to dry ice being laid on his skin. Even her breath seemed to rob his skin of any warmth and he shivered at the icy tendrils of warning that went straight up his spine at her nearness.

"Might be too much of a gambit, considering the culprit. This is all a farce and you will find your own sanity rather sparse," she continued and finally she let Hatter turn his head toward her. Her rhyming seemed a natural way of speaking for her, as if she had never spoken any other way, and her sing-song voice made Hatter's head ache in just those few sentences.

"Who're you?" he asked and her fingers cupped his chin, so firm in their grip that his cheeks felt like they were being pushed in. She leaned in closer and her look was void of emotion.

"Mother, Father, Sister, Brother. I'm none of those things yet all of those things. A troubling thing."

"If you're a product of my mind," Hatter said, "then I really am starting to doubt my own sanity."

That rewarded him with a slow grin yet the grin never went to her eyes.

"So you should but it wouldn't do you any good." The woman tipped her head on the side in a curious mockery of Hatter's own common habit. "Why would I be here if I shouldn't be here?"

"You got me," Hatter said and her hand drifted down his chest to his abdomen in a circling gesture.

"So many secrets could be hidden in thecentre of one's body…" She broke off, suddenly at lost for a rhyming word and then shrugged it off. Her hand pressed into his stomach and he had to resist the urge to squirm at the force of her push. "You know secrets better than any of those in Wonderland, it is imprinted on you like a brand."

She leaned in close and Hatter nearly crossed his eyes to keep his eyes locked on hers. Her fingers were still pressing uncomfortably deep into his stomach.

"What do you want?"

"To heal." The statement was so unexpected that Hatter's mouth worked for a few moments but no sound came out. He was at a loss for how to respond to such an obscure statement. Her hand trailed back up his chest to gently the hair at his temple. "To feel."

"Not sure how I can help with that," Hatter answered, finding her touch disturbing for some strange reason. He could feel in his gut that he should know her but no woman he had ever met in Wonderland or in Alice's world had ever made him feel so insignificant compared to them. Yet everything she did, from the way she spoke to the way her fingers touched his face, was familiar and his memory wracked itself to try to remember who she was.

"You already have in this intricate play. Both you and your Oyster, who was not supposed to return after her first exit but did so anyway. You both set the roles in motion and now there is no other way to resolve this, despite the need for caution," she admitted and there was a sadness that suddenly appeared in her green eyes that made Hatter feel a twinge of sympathy. He shoved it away almost as quickly as it came; he didn't want to start to sympathize with his own hallucinations.

"I… have no idea what you'retalkin' about," he admitted and the sadness disappeared from her expression. Her face seemed to harden into a mask and shadows drifted over half of her face, dividing her face almost perfectly into two halves of dark and light.

"You will need to… before you lose the whereto."

Hatter opened his mouth to question her but she was suddenly yanking hard on his hair and he closed his eyes instinctively. She pressed tightly against him and kissed him with a cold ferocity, her lips strangely warm and bitter. The kiss had no signs of real warmth or desire; instead, it was clearly meant as punishment. Punishment, Hatter realized, that he had to suffer through as a severe lightening bolt of pain raced up his hand, reaching to his head and then carrying through his body quickly. Like an explosion of fireworks he saw visions on the inside of his eyelids. Visions he could recognize this time.

Alice smiling ruefully at him, her hands cupped around her stomach in a curiously protective way… Jack sitting atop a gravestone with his head in his hands…. Charlie with his arm around a shaking Carol as they stared at a mass of graves…. Amelia standing behind prison bars with her head held proudly aloft though her eyes were shining with tears.

The feeling that surrounded his friends was one of intense despair and he tried to break the kiss but the woman's hand tightened his hair. The grip tightened and he shouted and tried to struggle free but there was no dislodging her.

The vision changed to again until Alice was standing before him, her form hazy. She was glowing and when he tried to reach out to her she lifted her own hand that had been cupped around her stomach, revealing a bloody right hand that held a blood-drenched dagger. With a sad smile, she raised the blade and drove it directly into her own stomach.

Hatter screamed, fighting to get himself free of the vision clogging his mind but he felt trapped by the intense power twisting his mind.

Hatter… wake up…

 

"Hatter? Come on, little love, wake up; you're dreaming again."

His face damp with sweat, Hatter woke groggily. He felt as if he was being dragged from his own nightmare and he could feel a soft hand smoothing his hair back from his brow. The hand was soothingly gentle and he stopped shaking long enough to take in some badly need air. His chest and throat ached from his cries and after several minutes, he finally opened his eyes and calmed his breathing down. He caught his reflection in a bedside mirror and saw that he was not as old as he thought. Barely five years old and he touched his face to find it still soft and smooth.

What had been the dream?

"These dreams of yours are getting worse, love." The familiar voice spoke with loving indulgence and he closed his eyes, not sure that he was dreaming. Maybe this was real after all.

Looking like a ghostly fairy in her gossamer nightgown, his mother continued to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead with her hand. She had set a candle down beside his head and he remembered how much she hated using electricity in their tiny house. Natural light, she claimed, was far better to use in their summer cottage. The candlelight was dying though and when the wick seemed just about to go out she reached over and flicked her hand over it. Her hand lingered for just a moment and her palm seemed to kindle with an orange glow before sending a fresh spurt flame onto the wick. She smiled down at him once the candle was properly lit.

"There, much better."

Hatter frowned, not remembering her ever having used magic before.

"Don't look like that, Noble," she chastised and he cringed at the use of his actual name, "or your face will freeze like that and no girl will love you."

"Ma?" he tried and had to rub at his eyes to rid them of sleep. Abigail Hatta seemed so real that he decided that he must have been dreaming before. Yet, everything else had seemed real, so what was actually real? No matter; in his mind anything was better than the nightmare of his own mind. Abigail helped him sit up and tucked the covers down around his waist in a very precise manner. Reaching out, she tousled his already messy crop of hair and then let her hand trail down to stroke his cheek.

"Shh." Her brown eyes were dark amber in the candlelight. "You were having a nightmare, that's all. They aren't real and they can't hurt you."

"Was real," he muttered insistently and she sighed, giving him a look she'd often give her husband when he was telling her some insane story. The look reminded him of his dreams and he rubbed at his eyes. The vision of the dark haired girl named Alice was fading and childishly he felt tears welling in his eyes at the thought of never seeing her again. His father had told him never to cry though so he struggled to keep his tears from falling and sniffed hard to hold them back. His lower lip quivered though, giving him away, and Abigail made a soft sound before pulling him into her arms. Clambering on her lap, he pressed his head against her shoulder and hiccupped into the soft silk of her gown.

"Now you know better. Dreams can't hurt you, love. You like just heard one too many stories from your Grandda. He does like to be rather bloodthirsty in their telling," she said, rocking him gently.

Hatter took in a deep breath, smelling the familiar hints of baking and apple-mint that lingered around her like a perfume. "He was telling me about mirrors again," Hatter explained. "About the ways into and out of Wonderland and the wars that were started."

"Stories no four year old boy should be hearing," his mother said, sounding exasperated which was something her son understood. It was no real secret that she found the elder Hatter rather trying in what he elected to teach his only remaining grandchild. Hatter learned his usual basics from all of his relatives but his grandfather was determined that he learned far more than that. He taught him more things and engrained them so deeply that Hatter would occasionally say things that no four year old boy should know.

"They sounded good," Hatter admitted and she didn't say anything to that. Instead, she merely began to hum in her throat a soft lullaby she had been humming for as long as he could remember. It was the same lullaby she would use when working, knitting, or planting and the sound was comforting after his nightmare. Reaching out, Hatter grasped the necklace that hung around her neck and began to toy with the charms on it. It was an old antique and held her three more precious charms: a brass key, a broken tiny pocket-watch and an old empty locket. She had told him the significance of each item at one point but his constant lessons made remembering such details rather unlikely. Hatter only knew that the jingling noise the charms made were constant company to his mother whenever she moved. Grey Hatta wasn't fond of the charms his wife wore and he was often claiming they were a reminder of something that had no real meaning anymore.

At the thought of his father's rather eccentric annoyances, Hatter tightened his grip on the old chain. "Where's Da?" he asked and she paused in her humming.

"He's on Royal Business for the Whites, love. You know he is still teaching their new Messenger Haigha to learn the routes. Do you remember him?"

"Da said he wasn't happy aboutHaigha being hired. Haigha is more of a City-minded Messenger," Hatter said and his mother gave him an affectionate squeeze.

"Don't believe everything your father says, Hatter. He isn't always right…" she paused and her voice took on a tinge of bitterness, "or truthful."

"He'll be back soon though?" Hatter wasn't able to keep the eagerness out of his voice. "I miss him."

His mother loosened one hand and rubbed at her stomach in an absentminded way. "So do I, Noble."

There was a strange breeze that went through the room though it didn't blow out the candle. Hatter felt like his mother's skin went to ice and he cuddled closer to try to get rid of the sensation. He didn't like the cold and after his nightmares he found the feeling frightening.

"What did you dream about?" she asked suddenly, her one hand moving from her stomach to his hand. She squeezed his right hand gently as if to encourage him.

"A girl named Alice, a Dodo…" He felt groggy suddenly at her touch and her hand lifted to smooth back his hair repeatedly.

"Anything about a mirror, love? About how to use them or make them?" Her voice had changed slightly, becoming more modulated and tinny than before. He muttered and shook his head, his hand still wrapped around her necklace. She began to hum again but the melody in the lullaby was gone. There was nothing musical about what she was humming and he blinked, not sure he was hearing her correctly The skin of her shoulder, where Hatter had been leaning his cheek, was suddenly rough and almost leathery in feel. Frowning, he lifted his head a bit and felt her hand touch his forehead again.

"You should remember you know. Your father did put so many secrets in you already."

The modulated tone had taken on a malevolent note and Hatter stared at her neck, not daring to look up. The skin he had been leaning against was now decaying before his very eyes and the draft in the room had become stronger. With each blow of the wind, her skin seemed to be disintegrating and he blinked, sure that he was seeing things. Like the child he thought he was, Hatter was terrified to look up because he instinctively knew what he would see.

"Tell me, Hatter." The voice dropped octaves to take on a more masculine tone and the grip shifted to his shoulders. The fingers pinched and he squirmed against the hold, realizing with horror that the person holding him was not his mother. The voice continued to speak as if he hadn't been struggling, "Tell me, or I'll find a way to kill that girl of yours, to make her suffer in a way that will be remembered for lifetimes."

Finally breaking free, Hatter launched himself backwards, falling hard onto his back and momentarily stunning himself on the hardwood floor. It took him only seconds to realize that he was no longer a four year old child being cuddled by his mother after a scary dream. His body was back to being that of a thirty seasons Wonderlander and he stared back at the bed he had been sitting on in shock. His mother was no more than a walking yet decayed corpse now, her eye-sockets hollowed out and black and her skin the colour of ash. The only thing gleaming on her skin was her brass and silver necklace but even that was seeming to fall apart as well.

"This isn't real," Hatter said, bewildered and the corpse laughed at him as it stared from sightless eye sockets at him.

"How are you to know, boy, when your mind is such a strange place? This could be more real than you know," the corpse said, the voice having a slathering tone like a hungry dog and no real gender to place it.

"I need to wake up." He got up onto his elbows and tried to get to his feet but they felt numb. The corpse finally stood and as he watched one arm fell from its shoulder-socket to collapse on the ground. The arm still wiggled but the walking corpse ignored it to stand over him.

"Yes, wake up. But your dreams won't leave you and you know that. No matter how you struggle, your dreams will always be here to keep you trapped in your mind," threatened the corpse as it tilted its half-decayed head at him. "You'll pray for death soon."

Then, without warning, the corpse leapt at him, hands outstretched to grab at his throat. Hatter yelled and grabbed at the body to keep it from landing on him, using his arms to brace himself. The corpse snarled and growled, straining to get closer and the room seemed to grow colder and colder as they fought. The mouldy smell was becoming too much for him and Hatter gagged, the distraction nearly letting the corpse get hold of his throat. When he felt the jagged nails dig into his arm, he shouted and was finally able to shove it off of him. It rolled only a few feet before it was on him again like a dog leaping on a bone. It was laughing at him through broken teeth, mocking him by repeating his name over and over even when he rolled over to try to land a blow himself. The voice echoed in his ears as he lifted his right hand to deliver a killing blow, determined to stop the voice once and for all.

"Hatter, Hatter, Hatter!"

 

"Hatter!"

Alice's gasping cry was loud enough to penetrate the heavy fog in his mind and Hatter's arm froze in the air. It took him but a moment to really wake up and recognize what was going on around him. The woman beneath him was very alive and very real, not to mention absolutely terrified of him. Sometime in the course of his second dream, he had rolled Alice over from his chest. She was still naked beneath him and his hand was pressed just at the base of her throat while his other was in the air, ready to strike.

Alice was staring up at him in shock, clearly lost for words. Her hands were gripping his left , keeping it from increasing the pressure on her vulnerable throat, and he could feel her nails digging into his skin from the effort of holding him off. Her wide eyes were, for the first time in a very long time, bright blue with terror and Hatter felt physically ill at the sight of such open fear. His own body was still ready to do battle but at the sight of Alice the adrenaline left quickly and let him really look at what he had been about to do. He was braced over top of her, his legs having pinned hers to the bed, and she was still trying to move him off of her with subtle shifts and shoves.

"I… Alice…I...Oh gods..." Hatter broke off, his eyes slowly lightening from the near-black they had become in his waking nightmare. He removed his hands slowly from her body, the way someone would if they were disgusted with what they had done, and sat back away from her before discreetly covering himself with a blanket. He put his head in his hands and tried to stop his head from spinning.

Alice released the breath she had been holding and promptly sucked in another one to steady herself. Waking to Hatter's mutterings earlier had made her smile at first; she was used to him dreaming during the course of the night. But slowly, as seconds and then minutes passed by with him stuck in the throes of a dream that was clearly terrifying him, she finally had tried to wake him. When words and gentle nudges did nothing she had resorted to giving his chest a light slap and speaking louder and more forcefully. Those actions had been like igniting a bomb and with surprising speed he had pinned her beneath him. Even that hadn't frightened her though and she had tried to talk her nearly catatonic lover out of it, seeing the sightless way he stared down at her.

It was only when she had seen that right hand of his lift that she knew she was in trouble and she had finally gave him a slap to his cheek that was still making her hand sting from the force of it.

"It was so real," Hatter was whispering repeatedly and Alice sat up, recovering her equilibrium finally. Grabbing her nightshirt off the floor, she slipped it on and then put her feet to the cold wood floor. He was staring at his hands and was shaking just as badly as she was. He was coated with a fine sheen of sweat though and it was obvious that he had clearly thought that what he had been dreaming was real until just moments ago. Alice swallowed down her fear and her sudden nausea, and went around in front of him. His sweat-soaked hair was almost plastered to his head and as she knelt Alice put her hand to his forehead to brush it away.

With a faint snarl he turned his head away from her touch. "Don't touch me."

The words sent a frisson of hurt through her but she kept it from cutting too deeply. She could tell that he wasn't meaning it to be insulting. Instead, she put her hands back in her lap and stared up at him. "You were dreaming," she whispered.

"Was I?" His eyes went over his own hands. "Could still bedreamin'."

"I'm real, Hatter. Believe me."

"I can't tell anymore," he admitted after a brief pause. "For all I know this is fake as well and I'm stuck in a coma or somethin'."

Alice leaned forward and when he looked at her she pressed a quick kiss against his mouth. Breaking away, she gently caressed his face before reaching down and taking his right hand in hers. Without hesitation she placed it over her breast so that he could feel her rapidly beating heart. His thumb grazed over the soft skin of her breast and for a moment, he froze. With a sudden ferocity he leaned in to return the kiss hungrily, his other hand hovering just against her cheek as if he was afraid to touch her. Alice broke the kiss lingeringly and then sat back.

"If it helps, I hear that pain can help you wake up as well," she said and then gave him a hard pinch to his thigh to prove her point. He yelped in response and jerked his leg away from her fingers.

"All right! I get the point." Finally smiling and believing her, Hatter looked her over again and Alice gave him a shaky smile which told him he had frightened her more than she was trying to let on. His eyes dropped to the open collar of her shirt and saw a faint bruise where he had gripped her. The guilt that had been nearly gone flared up instantly. "Oh Gods, Alice…"

Realizing that he was about to be guilt-ridden, she leaned forward again and put her hand on his knee. "Stop it. You were dreaming. You didn't know what what happening. It's just as much my fault for not waking you up sooner."

"It's never been that bad before, Alice. I couldn't tell what was real anymore. I could have killed..."

"What were you dreaming about?" she interrupted, not liking where that train of thought was taking both of them. He sucked in a breath and looked to the side nervously. For some reason, telling her of his first dream and of her ghost-self's suicide was something he couldn't bear. He didn't want to try to interpret that dream yet because it frightened him... terrified him to think of losing her.

The other dream though, was just as disturbing. But it was clear that Alice wanted an answer and he decided to try to take the lesser of two evils when it came to answering her.

"My mother." He sighed and looked at his hands again, not able to keep them from shaking. "It felt like I was four again, just before she died. I forgot that time because it... it was a bad memory. It felt like the night before she died, when she came to talk to me about my Da. The next day was when she left to find him at the White's and then… she died a day after that. Never knew what killed her, only what my Da told me, but... it was a memory I've tried to keep down. It hurt too much when I was little to think of her and it still does."

"Oh, Hatter," Alice whispered and she stood again. Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she pressed his head close to her stomach and his own arms went around her waist to hold her just as close. "It's natural to dream about people we love. I still dream about my dad sometimes."

"I've not dreamt of her since she died," he said, his voice muffled against her stomach. She smoothed his hair back from his face and felt him take in a shaky breath. "It wasn't like a normal dream. Something happened… it was like I was being interrogated and didn't know it until the very end."

"Interrogated? About what?" Alice asked and she felt him stiffen. She could tell already that he was regaining his self-control and wondered at how quickly his emotions could change. It was clear that the dreams had affected him deeply.

"Mirrors, of all things."

His head lifted and she looked into his eyes. It was the first time she had seen his eyes look like this since the Taiga and the Red King's penetration of his mind and she stared back, unable to find the words. While occasionally she had seen madness lingering on the edges whenever he was angry or threatened, now she could see it simmering just under the surface of his normal playfulness. It was like seeing a reflection of his mad self that was becoming clearer and the sight made her stomach clench nervously.

"Hatter…"

He breathed out and looked away from her. "I'm sorry, Alice. I could have hurt you..."

"You didn't, Hatter. Was it just your past you were dreaming of?" she asked and he shook his head.

"No, it was... worse. Hard to believe eh? Considering all I've done you know," he jibed half-heartedly and she stared at him, wondering just what had gone on in his mind.

The question she had been about to ask was interrupted by the sudden peal of bells and alarms going through the air outside their inn. The sounds seemed to vibrate through their tiny room and they both glanced at the window before looking at one another in confusion. Hatter seemed to take it as an opportunity to distract himself and he stood, cinching the blanket around his waist before going to the window. He opened it without making another remark to Alice and the cold air that wafted in with the breeze seemed to waken him further. He braced one arm on the window frame and leaned out, straining to see what was going on.

The bells were chiming more fiercely now and Alice followed Hatter over to the window. She ducked under his arm and stood in front of him, clutching the collar of her shirt closed to ward off the chill in the air. Hatter pressed up behind her and they both leaned further out. There were stilt-walkers roaming the streets below but they were dressed differently than the one Alice had seen hours before. These looked like town criers and each was carrying a megaphone as they went building to building to shout their message.

The chiming of the bells was almost deafening and Alice winced, looking up at Hatter to see if he knew what was going on. He was watching the stilt-walkers and when he noticed Alice looking at him he shrugged. "Could be anything. This is the South after all; a normal system would make far too much sense for them to use."

She just stared at him and he finally just sighed and leaned further out. The dawning rays of light were cresting over the slanted roofs nearby and it gave him enough light to see the nearest stilt-walker below them. The man was bellowing out muffled orders to the building across from them and, when he turned to walk on, Hatter banged hard on the window frame

"Oi!" he shouted and his voice echoed between the alleyway walls.

The stilt-walker below their window looked up and tipped the megaphone in their direction. He spoke in another, more guttural language, and when Hatter didn't respond he swore before switching tongues.

"What?"

"What's all the noise about? Another tremor?" Hatter yelled down and below him a few windows opened. He could see the other occupants leaning out as well to hear the news.

"Worse. Just got word from the Royal Council in Wonderland City. The King was killed in a blast, Wonderland save his soul." As if that solved Hatter's question, the stilt-walker continued on without another word, leaving the people below whispering loudly. Hatter was too shocked to answer and instead rocked back on his heels.

Jack couldn't be dead. That was impossible...

His vision from before of Jack sitting on a gravestone suddenly swam before his eyes and he squeezed his eyes shut to get rid of it. It took him a moment to really absorb what the stilt-walker had said and he stared down at the street, at a loss for words momentarily. Just when he was about ask if she was okay, he heard a faint sound like a sob and Hatter turned his head toward Alice.

She had her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide as she leaned against the window frame. Hatter stared back at her and she shook her head when she saw his stricken expression. "He can't be dead." Her voice was almost breaking at the thought of her friend.

"Alice... I don't think the bells or criers would be lyin' about this," Hatter said as gently as he could, putting a hand on her elbow. Even he was caught by surprise with the amount of grief he felt at Jack's apparent death, as it was an emotion all Wonderlanders went through differently. But this was his friend and now to hear of him gone was almost unreal.

"But he was just finding Will... who would try..."

She broke off and Hatter could see that her mind was whirling over a million possibilities at once, the same as his. But when the tears welled up in her eyes he knew he couldn't stand to look into her grieving face without giving into his own grief as well. Reaching out, he pulled her tight against him and tucked her head under his chin. She was shaking and Hatter rocked her as gently as possible, his own nightmares forgotten as he tried to ease her tears.

Listening to her cry, he let his eyes roam over and noticed the open window across from their own. His attention was diverted from Alice and his grief, a much-wanted diversion now, and he lifted his head to look. He could just make out a shadow in the darkness of the other room and when he tried to look harder he saw the shadow move quickly out of the dim light. It sent an intuitive flash of warning through his brain and he held Alice tighter against him before pressing his cheek against the top of his head.

"It'll be okay, Alice," he murmured to comfort her, "It'll be okay."


	15. Two Wild Cards Low

For a man with such a short stature, Abelard managed to move through the long halls of the Heart Palace like a lumbering Jabberwock. Every step he took was accompanied by a heavy limp and caused by the large book he carried. No matter how carefully he carried the book it seemed to lose pages with each step he took. But his thumb was planted firmly on the page he wanted and that alone kept the book from just falling apart. A page that could be some form of evidence as to what had caused all these terrible deeds in Wonderland lately.

At least, to his mind it was evidence.

A rather sour looking and incredibly tall Club, who sniffed and looked down his nose at the approaching Diamond, met him at the Royal Apartments. Abelard went to pass him but the Club reached out and pushed back on his chest with one hand, keeping him back away from the doors. The look they exchanged spoke of the mutual animosity that still lingered even after the fall of the long-reigning Queen of Hearts. There had never been any love lost between the two Houses and Abelard was unable to keep his own sneer from his lips. The Clubs had long been advisors and apparently it gave them airs as to their value. That would change some day, he thought to himself with satisfaction.

"Is she still in there?" Abelard asked as he tucked the book under one arm. The Club inclined his head and then clasped his hands before his stomach.

"Her Majesty is not seeing anyone." The Club stared down at Abelard and squinted his eyes a bit at the book he carried. "You saw, like the rest of us, how badly the news affected her. When she came back to her rooms she fainted and the doctors have ordered her to be in solitude until she recovers."

"But she is awake?" Abelard saw the Club's open confusion at the question and smiled. "Excellent."

Without giving any warning, he shouldered his way past the Club and opened the door, fully expecting to see the Queen sitting before the main fireplace in the great room. But it was void of anything and even the fireplace had not been disturbed in some time judging by the freezing cold of the rooms. With no thought as to propriety, Abelard stormed over to the more personal chambers and looked in, only to see that the bed was disturbed but empty, with the balcony doors open to let in the cold breeze from the distant Lake. Abelard ignored the continued protests of the Club behind him and checked the countless books on the King's large desk near the fireplace before going deeper into the room. He was not about to be deterred and that the Queen was now missing from his sight did not throw him off from his intentions.

It was when he passed their library doors that he noticed a glimmer of fabric, too fine to be part of the drapes, was being blown in the breeze. Had he not seen it, he would have likely passed by without another thought. The Club behind him was yelling for the guards in between blustering about how the Diamond had so rudely shoved by him. Abelard merely shifted the book under his arm a bit more securely and straightened his pristine red robe with the other hand. The sight of the beautiful blonde woman outside made him suddenly self-conscious of his own rather dumpy frame. She looked like a refined statue and he steeled himself against the unease that unexpectedly came whenever he saw the Queen.

Amelia was standing at the carved marble railing, staring out over the edges of Wonderland City. Her hands were spread wide as she braced her weight against the rail and her hips were cocked to one side, giving the impression of being somewhat at rest. However, she was far from relaxed; the rigidity in her back gave her away as did the restless way her fingers tapped on the marble. She had stayed out here on the balcony wearing her normally thin and revealing clothing while she endured the cold wind and tried to feel something.

Something, anything, to absolve the grief that had rendered her numb and made her long to be left alone.

She had survived the endless questions and rude insinuations of the Council for as long as she could, enduring them while trying not to show how much each word cut into her. Once the meeting had ended she had retreated with her remaining dignity but eventually, once the shock had caught up with her. she had collapsed in her rooms to the alarm of her personal guards. Exhaustion, her doctor had said, and shock would wear her out and since she often repressed such things it was not surprising that she would collapse. Even if she tried to hide what she felt it would do her no good, Amelia realized. It was on her face for all to see; deep fatigue had left dark circles beneath her eyes and she had a very unhealthy pallor that betrayed her. Trays of food had been sent back untouched, as had the countless people who had come to give her their condolences. Amelia was a realist when it came to those who were either in or close to her own station. They were not there to console but to indulge their own curiosity about the Queen's state of mind.

To make certain that their interests could still be protected.

The Queen, on the other hand, felt quite on the edge of insanity now that she had had time to think. What was she to do without Jack? What reason did she have to continue on as she knew was expected of her?

In her heart, she knew the answer and the answer was her son. There was still the chance of him being found though with each passing hours the chance dwindled. It was something to cling to still, something she could try to keep faith in even though she wanted to scream at the injustice of losing her beloved husband. As Amelia stared out over the Lake, she prayed that her husband hadn't died in vain.

A throaty and rough cough came from behind her and she shut her eyes against the sound. She just wanted to be left alone but it seemed like even that was going to be taken away from her.

"Your Majesty?" Abelard's voice was like an intrusion with just those few words and Amelia did not turn, no longer caring what decorum would have demanded of her.

"What?" she snapped out, the bite in that singular demand accompanied by the impatient tap of her nails on the railing.

"We need to speak," Abelard said but his voice was intimidated. "That is... it is imperative that you and I speak, your Majesty." Amelia listened to the strange inconsistency in his voice; she could tell he was nervous about something.

"Regarding what?" she demanded and he took a few cautious steps towards her. Like a snake in the grass, she thought but knew that that was unfair. There were far worse people who could have come demanding her attention and she could handle the Diamond without any problem.

"Documents have been found... regarding the Right of Succession," Abelard continued and he finally came beside her. When she didn't look at him he put a very heavy book beside her in the way an interrogator would slap down evidence against a suspect. Amelia didn't bother to look at him but her tension had increased if that was possible. She felt so rigid that she was certain even he noticed it though his eyes hadn't left the book.

"I am in no mood to discuss such things. My husband's body has not even been retrieved yet," Amelia answered in a cold voice, her hands clenching into tight fists to restrain herself.

"You will want to discuss this." He flipped the book open to where his thumb had been keeping marker. With a stabbing motion he pointed to her flourishing signature at the base of the page. "Right of Succession, from Jack Heart to his first born child, with you as Regent. Should the child die, then you are listed as the only remaining Heir to the throne. Dated one month ago today."

"This proves what?" she questioned, remembering to soften her voice.

"He only changed the Right of Succession recently and partially due to your pressuring him about it. That, at least, is what I told by my sources."

Amelia rocked back on her heels and then stared at him. "Are you accusing me of murdering my husband? You believe me capable of such a thing"

"No one knows what you are capable of, my lady. Even when you were merely a Duchess in the Courts, you were always the wild card we had not been able to predict," Abelard commented and there was a strange affectionate tone in his voice, like an indulgent uncle. Amelia looked away from him, knowing that there had been a strange compliment in what he had just said. After a quiet moment, Abelard sighed. "This is not a document any one would want found. It was well hidden in the vault but there is more than just you who stand to benefit. Beyond your family and I have no reason to disillusion you about them."

"I have no reason to want to rule Wonderland without my husband, Abelard. I would rather abdicate now to grief him as a private citizen," she said, her voice dropping. The grief in her tone was almost tangible and she looked away again. "I have not been close to my family since they began using me as a pawn in the Court. I would fully expect them to try such a plot, if you must now. However, if you are going to accuse _**me**_ of such things, Abelard, at least have the nerve to do so without word games."

"I do not think, despite all of our recent clashes, that you would do such a thing, Majesty." He made it sound as if it actually pained him to admit to it. "But..."

"What else, Abelard?"

"There is a deeper problem, Majesty," he admitted. "And that is that the Queen of Hearts... the elder Mary Elizabeth, would be the only remaining Royal left to rule."

Amelia stared at him. "So we have a problem, don't we? You cannot trust me even though I would never hurt Jack or my son, and I cannot trust you because you do not trust me. Yet we have several common enemies that stand to benefit if we falter in our choices. One being a woman that could tear everything down that Jack has tried so hard to rebuild."

He inclined his head. "What do you propose?"

* * *

It took Hatter and Alice a matter of minutes to get dressed and ready to leave once the shock of Jack's death wore off. Chesh was more than a little unhappy with having been locked in the closet but at a warning word from Hatter he kept his mouth wisely shut. Alice had nearly cried herself out over the shock of Jack's death and the worry of seeing Alice's grief had been more than enough to keep Hatter quiet while she cried. The King's death had only strengthened Hatter's own resolve to find Alice's mother and the White Knight though. After that was accomplished - and it would be, he knew- he intended on getting to the bottom of his friend's murder and his godson's kidnapping.

Hatter said nothing of this to Alice, merely helped her pack and watched as Chesh took his favourite perch on her shoulders. Chesh had disappeared the instant his paws touched her skin and upon seeing this, Hatter wondered if the cat was affected at all by Alice's strange glow. Hatter didn't like the thought that Chesh could be leeching power off of her and he knew he'd have to keep a closer eye on the cat the further they went away from normal civilization.

Normal civilization by Wonderland standards, that was, and that wasn't saying terribly much considering what Wonderland was like.

The inn's stables were crowded with people sharing the news of Jack's death loudly, throwing newspapers this way and that while the 'sharing' quickly escalated to political arguments. With relative ease Hatter stole one of the papers as he escorted Alice to their horses' stalls and handed it over to her. Alice was trying to ignore the people talking all around them and Hatter went to saddle the horses, leaving her to unfold the newspaper.

The bold headline stating 'The King is Dead' didn't help her attempts to ignore the other people and she closed her eyes, willing her churning stomach to stop. Bad news seemed to be a very big thing in Wonderland, judging by the way the paper was laid out, though in her world it was the same way. The front page was plastered with Jack's photo and various related headlines and her hands shook as she went to turn the page.

"Anythin' else on there? Or just all bad news?" Hatter asked over the loud din of the crowd as he plopped the saddle on Arthur. The gelding grunted and rolled his eyes back at Hatter, clearly nervous about the crowd. Hatter stroked his neck and bent to grab the girth. "There might be something in there we need to know. Though knowing the newspaper, they'll be running special editions on this by the hour."

Alice scanned the articles half-heartedly. "Nothing I can... oh..."

At her tone of voice Hatter straightened up and began to tighten Arthur's girth. When she was still quiet, he looked over his shoulder at her. "What is it, luv?"

"This is...bad, very bad," Alice said and turned the paper around so that he could see the headline: **'Chief Suspect: The Queen.'**

Hatter sucked in a breath. "That is bad. Especially since we both know she wouldn't do such a thing."

Had it been a year and several months ago, maybe then they would have suspected Amelia of such deviousness. But she had more than proven her loyalty and love for Jack while enduring the punishing tortures of the Red King, and neither Hatter nor Alice doubted her love for her husband and her son. Alice turned the paper back around and read the article quickly before relaying it in short-form to Hatter,

"She's under house arrest and supposedly the Right of Succession has been found but it will be ignored in favour of the older traditions."

Hatter nearly dropped the saddle he had been about to place on Guinevere. "Say that again?"

"In favour of..." Alice began and he shook his head.

"I heard you, Alice. I just..." He took off his homburg and swiped his hand over his forehead. "That was not expected."

"What's this 'Right of Succession'?" Alice asked curiously, leaning against the stall wall. Arthur butted his head against her shoulder and she gave him a scratch, ignoring Chesh's growl in her ear.

"Means that the Royal House needs to bring all heirs forward to rule. And in Jack's case... that means only his son, who is missing, Amelia who is accused of murder, and his... mother."

"Oh," Alice breathed. "This is bad."

Hatter continued saddling Guinevere. "But nah... the Council wouldn't go that far. They like traditional Government, bein' all proper like they are, but they aren't that..." He waved a hand in the air to find the word he wanted, "stupid. Not enough anyway to let her go. Or to let some other tyrant in."

He and Alice looked at one another and she shook her head. "I'd like to believe that," Alice admitted, "but from what Jack and you always told me, I shouldn't hold out for hope."

"History would agree with that," Hatter grumbled before he bridled Guinevere and threw the reins over her head. Alice exhaled slowly.

"So what do we do?" she asked and flipped the paper shut. Hatter sighed.

"I... really don't know." He twisted himself around and grabbed their bags. "It would take us days to get back to the City now and there is no guarantee that it would do us any good. We might be thrown in prison right along with her. These things take time as it is, luv; it may take them over a month before anything is done and we can hope that we can get back in time to help Amelia once things cool out a bit between us and the Suits."

Alice nodded and went around to the other side of her grey gelding to cinch the saddlebags to his saddle. He snorted, ears still pinned as his eyes rolled at her and Alice leaned forward to scratch at his neck. He still seemed nervous and she started to croon lowly in her throat to try to soothe him. Chesh's voice in her ear almost startled her,

"Horse seems to think that something is up."

"Could be the cat on my shoulders," Alice answered and looked at Hatter. He was having to soothe Guinevere as well and the mare seemed just as unsettled as Arthur, only she trusted Hatter enough to let him close.

"Let's get out of here while we still can, eh?" Hatter said as he slid the poles out of the stall entrance to lead Guinevere through. "With luck, starting out this early means we'll miss Selena and her cronies. It's a long ride to the Metropolis."

He had turned to mount up when he felt a gun poking him in the small of his back. Sighing, he rolled his eyes up at the ceiling before looking at Alice. She had her hands up in the air and was being pushed forward by a thin little man covered in straw. Hatter put his own hands up away from his saddle and backed away from Guinevere. His eyes met Alice's and she gave him a look, waggling her fingers in an unspoken signal. He shrugged and then grinned, knowing what she meant.

Alice moved faster than he expected, grabbing the hand on her shoulder and flipping the small man over. Her elbow caught him on the nose and he yelled, collapsing under the skill of her maneuver and then freezing immediately when her heel planted itself just over his groin. Hatter wasted no time in being proud of her; twisting quickly, he grabbed the gun pointed at his back and wrapped his right finger around his attacker's throat. He shoved forward hard and promptly pinned the light body against the stall wall.

Selena clawed at his hand, gasping for breath and Hatter's eyes squinted slightly as he took her in. The gun had been dropped in their scuffle and thankfully it was far enough away beneath Guinevere's hooves that no one could go for it easily. The crowd in the barn never seemed to notice that there was a scuffle going on and the oblivious way they carried on was enough reason for Hatter not to immediately let Selena go. Her nails dug into his hand but not hard enough for him to even think about letting her go.

"So, the gun in the back was to do... what, exactly?" Hatter asked, tilting his head at her. She glared back at him and choked out something.

"Hatter, I think you're holding her too tight," Alice commented wryly and he shrugged.

"Thought she could handle it," he grumbled and loosened his hold just enough that she could breathe properly. Selena sucked in badly needed air and then managed to give him a properly defiant look from her black eyes. Her tongue flicked out to lick her lips nervously as he promptly patted her heavy coat, not trusting her not to have some sort of weapon on her.

"I thought you said you wouldn't leave the town," Selena croaked out and Hatter shrugged.

"Technically, I said for you to find us in the morning but as you weren't around first thing this morning when we got up, I elected to leave." He looked over his shoulder at Alice and saw that she had turned the little man over on his stomach. She had his hands pinned against his back and was kneeling on him to keep him still. Alice met his eyes and then looked at Selena, obviously uncomfortable by her nearness.

"Your story checked out," Selena said, opting to cut to the chase. "Dodo has been a little lax in the information he gives lately."

"Well that's comfortin'," Hatter stated sarcastically. "But it doesn't quite explain why you just shoved a gun in my back."

"Force of habit?" she offered weakly with a chuckle and Hatter mocked her laugh. "Besides, I was given my orders."

His eyes went over her and saw that she was dressed in more travel minded gear, from the tips of her flat boots to the shoulders of her heavy duster. Hatter couldn't help but groan and stepped away from her. He knew where this was going and his stomach already twisted into knots at the thought of it.

"Alice, let him up," he ordered softly and despite her obvious confusion she did so, stepping a good distance around Arthur to put the horse between herself and the man she had just pinned. He was cradling his injured nose with one hand and Selena gave an open sound of disgust.

"Really, Mickey, you are useless! Go and find the others!" she snapped and he gave Alice one last furious glare before he did as he was told, disappearing into the crowd. Alice sighed and ran her hand through her hair as she stepped back to Hatter's side. Her eyes met Selena's and for some childish reason she reached out and took Hatter's hand in hers, her fingers curling possessively around his. Hatter looked down at her and gave an apologetic grin.

"What is it?" she asked and he nodded back at Selena.

"I've got a bad feelin' that Dodo told her she is to 'accompany us'," he explained and heard her groan. "Yep, that's precisely how I feel."

"I share Dodo's sentiments regarding this," Selena snapped, clearly annoyed that he was discussing her as if she wasn't there," and that is that you will need the help of the Resistance in the South."

"We aren't doing too terrible right now," Hatter started and she snorted.

"Please. Even after all this time you've not even set foot in the Deep South yet and more than likely you've noticed that there are some people who would rather keep this missing Oyster's location a secret. Two of you against a possible group of conspirators?" She made it sound as if they were idiots for even trying.

"Had worse odds," Hatter argued and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Probably and that doesn't make you less of an idiot."

"Hatter," Alice said, sensing that his temper was about to explode. She tugged on his hand for emphasis and he looked over at her. "Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea, having extra people along. Especially people in the South."

"I think you're all idiots," Chesh whispered in her ear and Selena looked sharply over at Alice.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" Alice asked innocently and Selena gave her a confused frown before looking back at Hatter.

"What is it going to be?" she demanded. "Either you let Dodo's group come with you or we turn you over to the proper authorities. And with the King's death they are looking for anyone who could know anything. Which would throw quite the damper on your plans to travel, wouldn't it?"

Hatter hissed in a breath and then let it out slowly. "What does Pidge have to say about this?" he asked and Selena looked uncomfortable.

"I suppose you want him to come along," she stated petulantly like a child being told they had to bring a friend they didn't actually like.

"That's my stipulation in this," he countered and she sighed.

"Fine. Stay here. If you go, I'll have my men hunt you down again," she threatened. With a faint sneer on her lips, she turned and moved into the crowd after the man she had brought with her. Alice looked up at Hatter, who, after a long moment of staring after Selena, finally looked back at her with uncommon severity in his face.

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask how he felt about Selena coming with them but she cowardly went with a safer route. "Why Pidge?"

"One of the few I can trust down here, Alice. He also knows this area better than many of us. Has higher connections; most of the classier folk and higher end merchants." Hatter paused, considering. "And he also isn't terribly fond of Selena."

"Why?" Alice asked, confused and Hatter shrugged.

"Not sure. He just doesn't like her methodology I guess. They've always had a load of tension since we were kids and it has never been resolved."

Alice frowned at the back of Hatter's head, because she somehow felt that his assumption wasn't even close to the reason why Pidge and Selena didn't get along. Pidge's dislike had almost been forced, and she wondered, in a vague way, if Pidge was hiding deeper feelings for Selena. She sighed and shook her head. It had been hard enough dealing with Jack a year ago when he hadn't realized his feelings for Amelia. She really wasn't sure that she was up to dealing with the typical Wonderland response to feelings.

Which was to ignore them until it exploded back in their faces.

Considering the recent explosions, both literal and figurative, Alice knew that it certainly wouldn't help their strange situation.


	16. Hidden Hand

The bus was unbalanced, careening wildly around corners and then having to be re-corrected violently to keep it from tipping over. Sitting in the lower level, Charlie and Carol kept themselves pressed against opposite sides in order to keep from falling all around the barren interior. Their conversations, often quiet and more to fill the occasional awkward silence, had taken a gradual turn from life in Wonderland to Carol's own world. The subject seemed to fascinate Charlie, though elements of their worlds were similar, but the more he learned the more personal the questions became. It was nothing conniving on his part; he simply wanted to see what another world may be like, no matter the answer he may get. Carol had managed to avoid speaking very much about her now deceased husband but Charlie hadn't been that interested thankfully.

He was interested however in learning about Alice and the stories that Carol had told about her daughter had him chuckling loudly at various times. It broke the tense mood between them and they were on far friendlier terms than they had been before. The hours they had been trapped together had forced them to deal with one another's quirks and moods quickly and they had lapsed into a companionship neither had expected to happen.

"So, Justalice was a troublemaker?" Charlie asked Carol after a story she told about Alice pouring oatmeal into a hated dance teacher's high-heels.

"She had her moments; usually whenever she thought some injustice was being done," Carol said, still smiling at the memory of her daughter's pranks. "Or if she was very bored."

"I had thought she would be more... well, quiet," Charlie admitted thoughtfully and she shook her head.

"Even though there were times when I worried about her, she was always pretty happy," Carol explained and Charlie looked over at her. He twitched his tiny beard back and forth as if a new thought had bothered him.

"Even without her father?" he asked curiously and watched as she flinched and looked away.

"It was hard on all of us and we both learned to compensate for that loss, Charlie," she whispered, pushing a hand through her hair. Even in the dim interior light of the bus, there was no mistaking the signs of grief that had taken her face from light-hearted to solemn. He watched her in silence and then his eyes lit up, as if he had just thought up something new to ask. But Carol had seen the look on his face and was determined to end the way this conversation was going. With an exaggerated sigh, she got to her feet. "Sorry, Charlie, I think I'm just a bit irritable. I need to walk around for a bit."

It was an abrupt way to end their light-hearted conversation and Charlie stared slack-jawed as Carol began to stretch. That clever conversational move had reminded him of Alice and her ability to avoid uncomfortable subjects; the same suddenness in Carol's mood change and the way she had done it with finality had struck him as something Alice would do. The strange thing was that it was one of the few times he had thought she reminded him of young Alice.

She wasn't like her daughter, Charlie had come to realize in their long hours together. Carol was not one for adventure and was definitely not like her daughter when it came to adapting to it. She did not like the unknown and did not like the insanity that was Wonderland and its inhabitants. Charlie knew that, despite her occasional grumbling, Alice truly loved Wonderland and its general madness. _Well certainly,_ he thought, _the Harbinger had something to do with that._ Yet Charlie liked to think that Hatter was only a part of the reason why Alice handled things so well. As Charlie watched Carol begin to walk up and down the length of the bus, he continued to wonder if Carol was more like an Oyster than Alice. His experience with them had been rather minimal but he thought he knew something of them. Alice had eventually lost her reserve in a matter of days but Carol... she seemed to cling to it more desperately.

It was bound to make their conversations more awkward the longer they were in one another's company.

Charlie watched Carol continued to pace up and down the length of the bus and after a moment he simply crossed his legs and braced his arms on his knees. With a wheezing hum, he began to meditate to try to clear his mind. That, he knew, would take him the better part of an hour as his mind was always racing at a million leagues a minute. However, he was determined to maintain his calm objectiveness about their predicament.

Never mind that, in his many tries of escape, not once had he come close to success. He hadn't even really managed to surprise his captors or make a dent in their plans. In his mind, to fail was to give up and he had no intention of doing so just yet. He just had to hold out hope that he would be successful, sooner or later.

* * *

If there was one thing that Carol was learning in her kidnapping, it was that patience could be sorely tested in Wonderland. Especially when her co-prisoner was the White Knight who insisted on repeatedly trying to escape through a variety of methods. Charlie's attempts had taken on more desperate turns: there had been the attempt where he had thought he could 'evaporate' into thin air which had, of course, ended poorly, and then he had tried to pretend he was ill and his knocking out of a guard had only resulted in him being subdued a bit more forcefully than what was normal. Carol could sympathize with his desire to escape but though she was there to nurse him through his bruises and wounded pride, she made no attempt to help him escape. She personally felt defeated by their surroundings and after their first attempts to get even the slightest idea of where they were going were knocked down, she had simply given up on the whole.

The long hours spent in the bus had left her legs feeling cramped and weak, so at various intervals she would pace the bus to try to get the feeling back into them. But it was almost an impossible goal; her body ached from sitting for too long and her head was following suit with a headache that just wouldn't leave. Asking for any pain killers was not on her list of things to try since she was likely to be denied and no one had been down to see them in the better part of their journey in the buss. With a groan she stopped and stood before the locked doors that led to the second level of the bus.

Without a warning, the double-decker braked to a hard stop that instantly threw her and Charlie into a tangled heap near the front of their level of the bus. Trying to ignore the dig of his chain mail into her hands, she quickly disentangled herself from him with no small measure of pain. Weighed down by his awkward armour, Charlie continued to topple back and forth like a rag-doll. The bus struggled to stop properly but with a good thunk and clank it finally managed to brake completely with a jerk that caused them both to struggle for balance. Charlie continued to crash around and Carol narrowly dodged his flailing arms by pressing against the side.

"Phineus' hide and eyes, what in Wonderland is going on?" Charlie demanded when he finally managed to find his balance again.

Not having any answer, Carol only shrugged and waited for the bus to restart to its jolting speed. But it stayed still and the only sounds were that of the chugging engine and people moving overhead. Finally the engine was killed with a loud bang and Carol tipped her head on the side as she listened, wondering what was happening above. There were low voices and the sound of heavy objects being lifted and set down repeatedly, and for a moment she thought that maybe they had run out of gas or whatever it was that the bus ran on.

After a several minutes of people travelling up and down the length of the bus, someone came walking heavily down the stairs that led to their level of the bus and the door's endless sets of locks and chains were being undone loudly. For the first time, Carol managed to try for some enthusiasm. She bounced up and sprinted to the door, pounding on it hard even though the locks were being opened. It felt like it had been too long since she had had any fresh air or seen anyone besides Charlie and she was desperate to see if she could get at least a bit of sunlight. When the door swung open, Carol had to back away to avoid being hit by the heavy metal door and felt Charlie standing just behind her.

The thin man standing frame in the doorway was taller than Bobby Cagey had been, his dress like that of a forties' style gangster, and when Carol met his gaze she almost had the feeling that he didn't really care to do a thing with or about her. He gave the impression that he was there to do a duty that irritated him beyond any measure. To add to his disinterested menace, he was also carrying a pistol in his right hand; pointed to the ground with his finger just hovering over the trigger.

Without thinking, Carol backed up and glanced over her shoulder at an equally worried Charlie. He only stared at this new man and didn't make a single move. Giving them a moment longer to look at the gun he held, the man moved forward and to the side, allowing for two more similarly dressed men to enter behind him. They were all armed and one was holding up a length of rope.

"Face the wall," he ordered and with no outward sign of rebellion both Carol and Charlie did so in unison.

* * *

The process of exiting the bus seemed to take longer than expected. There had been a heated debate as to whether the two prisoners should be blindfolded or not, whether the ropes were tight enough, and whether it made sense to actually feed and water them. Though Carol's stomach was growling loudly, their last argument was ended in favour for tightening the ropes around their hands. They were shoved out of the bus with all the dignity of potato sacks and when Carol landed heavily on her knees with a grunt of pain, Bobby Cagey appeared from nowhere. He had to shove his way through the people surrounding Carol and Charlie and he gave the group a disgusted look.

"You're not supposed to hurt her, Leach!" he snapped at the thin man, grabbing his arm and shaking him. Leach shrugged him off and then booted Charlie out of the bus as well.

"She'll live."

Carol was hauled up from her knees by a pair of heavily set men and she took the opportunity to look around. The group that had piled out of the bus had to number at least ten or fifteen, all middle-aged and worn looking. None would look her in the eye and she had the feeling that the group was uneasy about what they were about to do... whatever it was had them all nervous. Carol shot an accusing look to the nearest man before turning her attention to the surroundings.

They had left the swampy area at some point only to enter a forest, from what she could see; the darkness of the bus hadn't let Charlie or her notice the change in scenery at all. The trees around them were so massive that even craning her neck back didn't let Carol see the tops of them, and it looked like their trunks were wider than the length of the double-decker bus. It was similar to a conservation park, she thought: the high trees, the dirt embankments that were covered in vines and sparse brush, and the faint sound of a creek running through nearby. The road was too narrow for the bus to continue through safely and though the sun was peeking through the foliage, there was a cold mist gathering on the road.

All the same, Carol tilted her head back to enjoy the first rays of sunlight she had seen in days.

"My knees cannot take much more of this shoving and kneeling," Charlie grumbled beside her and she opened her eyes to look at him. Now that they were in the light she could see that he was faring a bit worse than she was; his face was more gaunt and his bright eyes seemed to be pained. She could only give him another sympathetic smile.

"Let's get this over with. We're almost at the end of this journey and we'll be done what we came to do," Leach snapped, giving Carol a shove between her shoulder blades. Her temper snapped and she whirled as quickly as she could on her heels so that she could shove back at him with her bound hands. He wasn't ready for it and went toppling back into Bobby, who leaped out of the way instead of catching him. Leach fell without much to cushion him and the solid thump he made caused the group surrounding them to just stare. He gaped at Carol for just a minute before he pushed himself up and came so close she could smell the old whiskey and coffee on his breath.

"You do that again, Oyster," he threatened, "and you might not make it to the end of this journey."

"You shove me again and I'll be sure you'll be nursing more than a sore butt," Carol retorted, not blinking or backing away from him. They glared at one another before Leach looked away first, going to the front of their pack. Carol kept glaring at his back until she heard Charlie's delighted chuckle. When she looked over at him, she could see that he was amused by something and gave him a quizzical look.

His eyes danced. "I was just thinking how much you reminded me of your daughter right then." Carol smiled, taking it as a compliment. There was no time to enjoy their little joke as the group was moving and the guns pointed on them were indicating they were to follow.

* * *

The quiet of the forest was unsettling, Carol realized after the first ten minutes of walking. There were no birds, no insects or animals to speak of; it was as if the forest was dead except for the greenery. The open clearing they had been in had run into a dry ravine that was sheltered by trees and high hills. All around the pathway they were following were signs of ancient ruins and old statues. Almost all of the statues were headless and the ruins were similar to Greek temple pillars in style; covered in moss and vines, they had long been abandoned and time was chipping away at them slowly judging by their haggard appearance.

Eventually, Carol looked over at Charlie as they walked. "What is this place?" she asked him and he shook his head.

"I have never been this far south in Wonderland, Mrs. Hamilton. Though," he tipped his head on the side, "I would almost think it resembles a cemetery, no?"

She hadn't thought of that but now when she looked again, each statue seemed to make more sense as they were all staggered about like headstones might be. The lines they made were perfectly straight and the ruins that provided a solemn backdrop could have been the remnants of mausoleum. The realization of it made her shiver and look away from a headless statue that had been sculpted on its knees. The morbid thought that Charlie had planted was too sensible and she forced herself to look dead ahead, not wanting to see these graves all around her.

At the head of the group, Leach had taken a sudden turn to the left and was brushing off vines and leaves from a trap door that led into the ground. How he had found it under the years of growth and dirt Carol couldn't be sure but he was prying the metal door open as if he had known it was there all along. The group surrounding it were waiting patiently and a few had turned around to keep watch on the hillsides surrounding them. Everyone seemed to be on edge and Carol had to resist the urge to look around, fixating her attention on Leach instead.

It took him some back-breaking and grunting minutes before he was finally able to crack the trap door open. The minute it opened one of the younger men leapt down into the darkness that it revealed. Carol stood on her tip toes behind one of the men to look but saw nothing but shadows. Everyone watched with held breath until his head popped back up and he flashed a dusty grin at Leach and Bobby.

"Looks clear. Remarkably so. I can see the path straight ahead."

"Good," Bobby said and nodded to the two men behind Carol and Charlie. "Bring them." He pointed to two men and a woman. "You three keep watch. Let us know of any trouble."

Entering the dark tunnel brought on a brief claustrophobia for Charlie and Carol listened to his heavy breathing and muttering for a minute before slipping her hand into his. "It's okay, Charlie. I'm here," she encouraged and he sucked in a very deep breath before releasing it slowly.

"I'm fine, good woman. Just... I may be a Master of the Black Arts but unfortunately I am not terribly enthusiastic about all this darkness," he admitted and she smiled, still holding his hand to give him some comfort.

"Me neither. One step at a time?" she offered and he nodded, going first down the stone steps that led from the trap door. It was a spiral stone staircase, carved out of the ground it seemed, and Carol started to count the steps to keep her own growing apprehension from overwhelming her. The people before and behind her were flashing lights all over the walls and stairs, creating a disorientating strobe effect and Charlie and her had to be extra careful about what steps they took so that they didn't go tumbling down.

The darkness of the stairs seemed to be ebbing slowly though and after ten more steps Carol was clearly able to see the outline of the man in front of her. The stairs were ending and the pathway led into a larger tunnel that was brighter from what she could see around Charlie's taller height. For some strange reason, the sight of the tunnel made a foreboding sensation suddenly swell within her and she stopped on the last step. The man behind her shoved and she dug her heels in like an obstinate child. She was forced to walk forward a few more steps through the tunnel but eventually one of the men came back to help the man she was struggling with. He grabbed hold of the rope binding her hands and began to yank her forward.

Carol tugged back on her hands but the grip was too firm and she hissed when the momentum caused her to stumble forward and struggle to keep her balance. She almost crashed into the back of Charlie who had frozen mid-step, his head lifted high.

"Wondrous fancy, I think even my visions of the future had not anticipated such a sight!" Charlie was staring around the space, his eyes held so widely open that the whites of them sparkled in the increased light. He seemed to be trying to take in as much as possible and Carol had to squeeze by him to fit into the room.

Like Charlie, she took in a surprised breath. It was more than just a tunnel cavern, far more, and the bright beauty of it almost made her eyes ache. After hours spent in a dimly lit bus and the constant blindfolding, it was hard to take everything in and not feel a slice of pain. But it was worth it, she knew, and without resisting she followed one of her guards in.

The roof of the cavern wasn't completely closed over, but dotted with holes from above similar to chutes or rabbit holes. The holes allowed for sunlight to shimmer off the sea-green stalactites that covered the ceiling, causing them to sparkle brightly and their own shafts of light cascaded down into the vast room. It created in the room a flood of spotlights that appeared strategic while washing the darkness away. Mirror after mirror was suspended from the very stalactites that hung from the ceiling, each incredibly different in appearance and size. One looked like a simple hunk of glass while another was curved to the sides and with an intricately carved wooden frame; but no matter what they were framed in, they all looked as if they had been lovingly cared for though they must have been very old.

Carol was pulled to a stop and she looked over her shoulder to see that, unlike her and Charlie, the sight of the mirrors did not particularly awe any of the kidnappers. Her eyes travelled up and she took an involuntary step backward. A large mirror was hanging directly over her, swaying back and forth in the faint breeze that still ran through the cavern, and it seemed so ominous that she took a prudent step back. Something about the razor sharp edges of that mirror made her uneasy and the stalactites overhead did not seem that strong in order to hold it.

"Rebind her hands," Leach ordered from where he was standing on a raised stone platform. Carol bit back the insult she wanted to hurl at him and with a resigned expression she lifted her hands. The rope was removed and a length of chain was wrapped around her wrists instead. Oddly, Charlie was not rebound and instead he was pulled over to one side away from her.

Carol ignored the chain weighing down her hands. "Where are we?" she demanded and Bobby Cagey cleared his throat.

"You are standing in one of the last slices of history from the Taiga rule. One remaining pocket of Wonder; where magic was created and used in ways none of us ever could fathom," he said with the flourish of a storyteller. Carol had no interest in being entertained and jutted her chin out. Charlie though made a sound and perked up.

"Dear boy, you can't be serious? This place was supposed to be hidden and forbidden!" he exclaimed and the man behind him gave him a cuff to silence him.

Bobby gave Charlie a withering look. "Forbidden during the reign of the Queen of Hearts perhaps." He looked over at Carol. "Oyster, you are in the Drawling Cavern. Where the first conduits to control entry to Wonderland were built."

"Built on mirrors?" Carol asked, looking around.

"And on the pearls of Oysters." Leach had spoken this time and was looking over the edge of his platform. "It would seem that the Drawling Master has not been here in years to experiment, though he left his chemical vats."

"Pearls?" Carol asked and looked over at Charlie, who actually looked ashamed.

"Years ago, the souls of Oysters were drained to create conduits and the means to control them," he said before looking away from her. Carol caught the implication and turned accusing eyes to Leach and Bobby.

"You murdered them?"

"The White Queen and her fellows did so. We had no place in that... besides, it is all legend anyway." Leach indicated for the man behind Carol to bring her forward and despite her struggling she found herself being shoved right up the platform so that she stood beside Leach. He put his hand on the back of her neck and forced her to look down.

There was a large pool of black liquid that seemed to be constantly moving and rippling. The ripples caused small slivers of light to pierce the black liquid but not long enough for Carol to see if there was a bottom to the pool or not. Carol stared down in almost hypnotized horror at the sight and when Leach's fingers pinched the back of her neck she forced herself to look up at him.

The thin man gave her a thin smile and wrapped his hand around her chains. "You see, dear woman, it was necessary for you to be alive when entering the liquid glass that we create mirrors from. It will not, unfortunately, be necessary for you to survive it. We need only present the liquid to the Drawling Master."

"What?" she whispered weakly, horrified.

"The mirror's magic were created by them an infusion of... pearls. The kind you Oysters carry within you." He leaned in close. "The very kind that keeps you alive for the most part. So you can forgive me for this, I hope."

He suddenly yanked hard on her chains to draw her close but fear had made her instinctively ready to fight him. Though his meaning had been somewhat ambiguous, she knew that her life was depending on this. Carol struggled and felt the bite of the chain on her wrists increase until her skin finally split at the pressure. The metal slit her skin neatly and, shocked at the pain, her knees buckled and she went forward onto them. The pool of black liquid seemed too close and she struggled when she felt the hands on her back.

"Miserable cretin, wielding force on a woman!" Charlie was blustering nearby, struggling against the hold on his own arms. "You will meet your end!"

The moment he finished speaking there was the sound of a shotgun, the blast sending a sudden shock of sound through the cavern. Carol had frozen, still staring at the black pool in fear, when she felt the hold on her back suddenly grow heavier. Leach groaned behind her and there was a gurgle before he collapsed. The hand on her back gave one last shove and with a scream she went over the edge.

It was by some miracle that her survival instincts finally flared back to life and with a bone-cracking twist she managed to snag her hand on the edge of the precipice. Digging her nails into the hard stone, she ignored the shrieking pain that jolted her shoulder and hung on for dear life. She could hear the sound of guns and swords, complemented by an array of rough shouts and curses, and hoped that Charlie was all right. Swinging her other hand up, she managed to grip the edge and tried to pull herself up. But hours spent almost immobile had left her weak and she hung weakly from the edge, feeling the tips of her toes just touching the liquid below.

With a suddenness that was enough to make her scream, someone popped over the edge and stared down at her. Stupidly, once the scream came out, nothing followed and Carol stared at the woman peering over the edge. Her rose mark flared an angry red on her cheek and her face was bruised and cut, her lip split open. She snarled down at Carol and lifted a hand. Carol focussed on it and noticed the curved knife with a terror that froze her in fear.

"Stupid Oysters… serve your damn purpose!" the woman snapped and the knife started its descent. Carol squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see that final strike and waiting for it all the same. Instead of the painful bite of a knife in her body, she heard a muffled boom. It startled her into opening her eyes again and she gasped when she saw the woman above her was slumping over to the side, a bloody hole gaping in her exposed front.

Almost immediately, another female face peered down at her. "Are you wanting to just hang around forever?" another woman asked, a dark shadow on her face, and Carol stared up at her.

"Alice?" she whispered hopefully but then the light finally highlighted the woman's face and she realized that there was no chance that this was Alice.

"No, but judging by what you might land in, you may need to take my hand before you get tired." The woman spoke casually but her amber eyes were flicking from the black pool to Carol rapidly. This woman was closer to her own age, her auburn-brown hair pulled in a tight braid away from her face, and she was holding out her hand and wiggling her fingers impatiently. But unlike the woman before, she didn't appear that threatening though she had rested a shotgun down beside her while she leaned toward Carol.

"Uh…" Carol experimented and realized that her arms had started to go numb from the strain of her own weight. "Who are you? Where's Charlie?"

"My name is Caryn, love, and your friend is safe. Take my hand. You have my promise, and in Wonderland promises are a very serious thing, that I'm not going to hurt you," the woman vowed and her hand extended further out insistently. Knowing that anything would be better than falling into that pool of black goo, Carol threw her one hand up into Caryn's and felt strong fingers wrap around her wrist. For a woman as tiny as she was, she was strong and Carol found herself hauled up onto the ledge once again.

She collapsed into a grateful heap, sucking in air and struggling not to shake.

"Mrs. Hamilton! Goodness!" Charlie suddenly was at her side, one hand taking hers. "Our prayers were absolutely answered."

"What are you talking about, Charlie?" Carol asked as she coughed up a bit of dust. Using his hand as a brace, she sat up straighter and stared at the devastation around them. It was utter chaos to her. The people who had kidnapped them had all been killed, thrown into bloody heaps, and there were blue-garbed people moving slowly around the room, training flashlights on various areas to be certain that no one else was hiding. "Who are they?"

"Typical of Oysters," a scratchy voiced man said as he came to the side of Carol's saviour, "to always ask questions and yet never do they once say thank you right away." He paused, his deep brown eyes flicking over Carol intently, and looked at the woman. He adjusted his coat around himself and then tightened his scarf around his throat. "Did she touch the Elixir of Travel?"

"No, father. She's safe. I made sure of it." Caryn shifted her weight and holstered her gun in the long scabbard at her side.

"We are in your debt," Charlie began and the man's head snapped with a creak of bone toward him.

"Dangerous words, Knight," he warned. He seemed older than even Charlie though his hair was still iron grey, his craggy face held into a mask of sternness. "Make no such promises until you know why we saved you."

"Why did you save us?" Carol asked, rubbing at her shoulders to try to relieve the ache.

"We all have a stake in preventing such a stupid thing as using your soul to start another conduit. Those magics have long gone wild and only one person can actually use them. Even then..."Caryn waved her hand in the air as if to dismiss the concept. A scrawny man with a worn expression came to her side, shaking out his stained clothing in disgust. She turned her head on the side to watch him. "Did you find the others, Gnat?"

He nodded and with a flourish whipped out a white handkerchief. "There were only three outside. Taken care of nice and proper," he informed her as he began to blot at the blood on his hands. Caryn nodded and looked back at her father.

"We should get out of here. I don't like being in the open like this and if the other group got wind of them being here, they could be on their way as we speak," she sighed and checked her gun, "and I'm out of gun-shells.

"Lady Drawling, what use are you?" the Gnat asked in mock exasperation and she gave him a smile.

"Darling, I was about to ask you the same thing," she mocked him. She looked back at Carol and then at Charlie. "I'm afraid that this..." She dug through her deep coat pockets before holding up two blindfolds and giving an apologetic grin. "Is going to be necessary."


	17. Bilihoop Cows & Glows

Even though Hatter apparently had a long standing friendship with Pidge, Alice could tell that there was some tension between them. Tensions that seemed to revolve around their companions and the Snake. That neither man trusted Selena was clear enough but their way of dealing with their mutual distrust was at odds. Hatter had his usual brand of biting sarcasm but Pidge's words sometimes seemed more venomous, his words so tainted with dislike that occasionally even Hatter seemed surprised at them. Strangely though, there were times in the start of their journey where he would defend her fiercely if was Hatter who said something cutting. It reminded Alice of the way she had once defended Jack so blindly; though why Pidge was doing it wasn't as clear. Before she had assumed he was likely in love with her but she was starting to doubt that that was the reason.

It didn't matter; Selena didn't seem bothered by either men. Though there were times when she looked at both them with a mixture of regret and frustration before her expression would return to a stony mask of indifference.

They had already been six hours on horseback without resting, travelling over dusty back roads and small farmers field while narrowly dodging the patrols set up on the roads, when they came to a trail that led into a thick stand of trees. There was some discussion as to whether to divert down the new trail but any hesitation was overruled by Selena's confidence that this was just another trail to the City. Then they were under the shade of the trees, out from the hot afternoon sun, and Alice let herself relax, moving mindlessly with the slow gait of her horse.

It took her some manoeuvring but for the first time Alice managed to get close to Hatter. All of her prior attempts had been thwarted by Selena's men, who had forgotten their prior animosity in order to ask her questions about Wonderland City; questions that hinted to their own lost lives and families. Accompanying the questions and distracting her was Chesh's faint voice purring sly accusations about the whole situation and why they were in it. He was trying to plant suspicions in her head with each snide remark.

Alice hated to admit that he was doing a very good job of it. It made talking to Hatter seem more and more important. She needed his odd sensibility to counter Chesh's sly words.

Steering Arthur closer to Guinevere, she reached out and brushed her hand casually against his thigh. Hatter had been watching the perching birds overhead with a distracted look but at her touch he immediately looked at her. The directness of his gaze made her flush a little, remembering their earlier words to one another; they had decided between them to keep their normal habits to a minimum around these unknown people and Hatter had been most unhappy about that arrangement. Flashing her a grin, he reached down and gave her hand a squeeze before releasing it.

"'ello luv. Backside sore yet?" he asked, leaning back a bit as if to check for himself. Alice shot him a look; it had been over a year since the Taiga and still he teased her about her complaints back then about being sore from all the riding.

"Hardly." She gave him an equally playful smile and leaned over toward him, eyeing his upturned collar. "How's _your_ bruise?"

"'Cor you're a minx. Earned me enough by way of snide remarks from Pidge, thank you very much," he grumbled good-naturedly, reaching up and touching where she had put the bruise last night. They both had their share of 'battle wounds' as he called them that were only now showing up; Alice's lower lip was swollen from when he had accidentally bitten her and Hatter could still feel the marks of her nails on his shoulders. Worth it, he had muttered to her. But it hadn't stopped some very lewd remarks from the other men and Selena had given them both disgusted looks from time to time.

Which made Alice tempted to pull Hatter's collar down so that the bruise was more obvious. An obviously possessive move but she knew it would make her feel better. She looked back up at the head of the group where Selena and Pidge were arguing with one another fiercely by the look of things.

"Why do you think Dodo set her on us?" Alice asked, keeping her voice low. Hatter bumped Guinevere closer so that he could hear her better. Alice nodded up at Selena and Pidge and he shrugged.

"Knowing Dodo... he likes to think he should be on the know for everything. Even he hates to be out of the loop; considering everything that happened with the Taiga and how he didn't know a thing about that. Remember how Jack pretty much humiliated him way back?" he pointed out. "Though that does make it more suspicious, eh?"

"My my, how clever you are!" Chesh commented sarcastically, his head materializing just above Alice's shoulder. Hatter glared at the cat.

"Do you think..." Alice paused and looked around discreetly before continuing, "that he could have something to do with Jack's son disappearing?"

Hatter blinked. "Never really thought of that. I was thinkin' that he may have something to do with your mum's disappearance."

"That too," Alice muttered. "None of this fits, Hatter. Why now? Why did they destroy the Looking Glass now and not in all the months it wasn't in any real use?"

"Got me there, luv. Now you see... me? If I wanted to destroy the Glass? I would have done it the minute the Guard was down. This was deliberately timed." He rested his hand on Guinevere's neck. "Almost as if they wanted us out of the City. Jack too. Now I've got three people I've not see in ages showing up; Gnat, Snake, and Pidge."

He clicked his tongue. "Not much to like about this."

"Yet here we are, travelling with them. Brilliant," Chesh muttered, his round head turning completely upside down just to irritate Hatter. The young man gave Alice a meaningful look and she shrugged, arching a brow.

Hatter half-turned in his saddle and eyed the cat's head. "You know, seeing as how we do have guides now, that means that you don't need to be around. I've been itching to try out that charm bracelet Alice is wearin'."

"It's hardly your style, dear boy. Unless you like wearing feminine things," Chesh answered dryly, his tail appearing under Alice's long hair. It tapped against her neck and he shot Hatter a feline grin.

Hatter still glared at him. "Give me one good reason why we shouldn't just do away with you right now."

Chesh took a moment to think it over and when he found the answer his round head floated up near Alice's cheek. She could feel him standing on her shoulders, his invisible weight suddenly heavier by that action. "Because," Chesh said, speaking very slowly as if he thought Hatter was stupid, "you may not be able to trust me but you also can't trust this group as much as you hope that you could. At least with me, you have some form of leverage. What do you have with these people? Some hope that a decaying friendship hasn't been corrupted?"

Alice saw Hatter stiffen and wisely kept quiet, knowing that Chesh had a point and seeing that it was costing Hatter dearly to admit it to himself. Instead, she reached up and tugged hard on Chesh's tail, giving him an unspoken signal that he wasn't welcome in on their conversations now. He wisely began to disappear and his weight eased on her shoulders. His head remained however and he looked at Hatter.

"I do wonder if we are going in the right direction? Hard to tell with the sun barely visible through the trees, isn't it?" he asked and Hatter in reflex looked up. The Cheshire was right; the treetops were covering the sun and making it appear overcast. Which made him wonder if they were going the right way without the sun to guide them...

"Hatter?" Alice asked. "Would Selena even tell you if we were going the right way?"

"I... we were going south on the roads." He sighed and swung his one leg over the pommel of his saddle. "Pidge would be correcting her. He'd do that just to be at odds with her."

"Which is why you wanted him brought along?"

"That and he commands a wee bit of respect in the South from the locals. I'd trust him over the rest of this group in a heartbeat," Hatter trailed off in a mutter. Alice frowned at him and he sighed. "Not like I ever trust many people."

"Not like they like one another," she pointed out.

"Pidge and Snake never got along. Never will likely. Their back history is too twisted." Hatter wiggled his right hand before itching at the back of it. The red mark was still sore and itchy, and he had to stop himself from really scratching hard.

Alice was ready to ask why when there was an explosion of movement ahead of them. Arthur spooked in place, ears straining forward as he stared at the other horses. They were all dancing nervously around, frightened of something, and Alice saw that Selena was nearly half-off her horse before she managed to get it back under control.

"What the..." Hatter removed his leg from the saddle and stood in his stirrups, Guinevere still remarkably calm beneath him. Alice copied him, reining Arthur in a bit tighter to keep him still, and saw that there was a herd of creatures scurrying across the trail. They looked like miniature shaggy cows with silver coats and each carried two spiralled horns from their foreheads. They were running frantically at an awkward gallop that was causing them to slip and slid on the path. Once they spied the horses they spooked into a faster run, making strange screeching noises as they went.

"What are they?" Alice asked over the loud noise the herd made. It seemed like an endless stream of them crossing over the path.

"Absolutely no clue," Hatter answered, pushing his hat away from his eyes to get a better look.

"They're bili-hoop cows, if you actually want to know." Chesh's voice was insinuating they were idiots for not knowing but neither responded. "Sort of like deer... but stupider."

"Comforting," Hatter muttered.

Alice watched the progression of the tiny cows and then turned her head to look up through the trees. "Something scared them."

"My, we are intelligent today!" Chesh snipped and Hatter looked at the disembodied head.

"Shut it, cat."

Chesh wisely disappeared from view in time as Pidge came riding back toward them. His lean face was set in an amused expression, his eyes flickering over Alice and then Hatter. "Now how is **that** for a road block, eh?"

"How many is there?" Alice asked as she settled back into her saddle.

"Hard to tell. Herds like that run into the hundreds sometimes. Makes for good meals. Cook up about four of them per person," he said and Alice made a face. "Bit stringy normally."

"What scared them?" Hatter had turned his attention to the trees, that itch of being followed nagging at him again. He had felt edgy ever since his nightmare last night and this sort of thing wasn't helping his nerves.

Pidge shrugged. "I'm sure we are about to find out."

"You know, you still need to work on your explanations," Hatter grumbled at his friend. "They're terrible."

"I've been practising but clearly not hard enough," was the sarcastic answer.

"And here I was thinkin' you'd matured." Hatter was grinning at Pidge and the other man shrugged

"Maturing is boring. You've proved you can act like a child and still have a beautiful woman be attracted to you. Now how is that fair?" Pidge complained gruffly and Alice blushed, unable to help it.

"Pidge," Hatter warned and Pidge sent him an innocent look. "Leave my girl alone."

"Sure thing." He winked at Alice anyway before turning his attention to their surroundings. "Would you like to place bets on the amount of time before we get attacked? I'm calling four minutes."

"Three." Both men looked at Alice expectantly and she had to think for a minute before responding.

"Two?" she put in hesitantly and Pidge shrugged.

"Sounds fair enough. I win, you both have to tell me how wonderful I am."

"I'm sure you do that enough for the rest of us," Alice stated and he stared at her, Hatter grinning. Eventually, Pidge slapped his knee.

"Gods I do like her, Hatter. You've got a sister, Alice of Legend?" he asked and she shook her head.

"She's got a mother," Hatter offered and Alice half-heartedly punched him in the arm.

"Oh, older ladies. Like fine wines. I can work with that," Pidge said, seeming like he was talking to himself. His handsome face had a devilish grin that made Alice give Hatter a look. He coughed.

"Well, Pidge. We find Carol and Charlie, you can have first crack at her," Hatter offered, earning him a hard punch that made him grunt in pain.

"Excellent." Pidge checked his watch. "Hmm. Been three minutes."

There was a sudden explosion of gunfire from around them and all the horses leapt forward frantically. Even Guinevere had been startled and Hatter yanked her around roughly. Selena's men were all dismounting to take cover in the trees, and one of the horses had been pulled down by its injured rider, the horse shrieking as it pawed and struggled with the harsh hold. Selena paused long enough to turn to grab the horse and haul it off her man, but she didn't help him up, leaving him to drag himself to the cover of a tree. Pidge slid from his horse's back and Alice and Hatter followed, pressing against the trees with their spooking horses dancing around them.

Pidge was humming loudly and off-key, pulling a gun from his side holster and clicking in bullets slowly. He looked as if he wasn't in the slightest bit worried about the gunfire around them. Hatter pressed his body against Alice, his arms bracketed on either side of her to keep her safe, and looked over at Pidge. The taller man was thumbing the chamber on his revolver, turning it and then making certain its alignment was perfect. All the time, bullets were ripping through the trees and sending sprays of bark and wood into the air. Alice kept her face against the tree as Hatter whispered for her to keep still, his other hand stealing down to pull his own gun from his belt.

"Should have armed better," Hatter muttered in her ear and Alice shrugged. There was no time to grab another weapon from their saddlebags.

"Where's the fun in that?" she joked, jumping as a bullet whizzed by her ear.

"Good point. Pidge? This ain't a pretty gun contest," Hatter yelled over at him as he pulled away from Alice. Pidge was still leaning against the tree, rolling the chamber over and over while he polished the holster.

"Patience, Hatter. I've got no worries about..." A bullet suddenly ripped through the tree he was leaning against, narrowly missing his cheek and sending a shower of wood-chips into him. Pidge spit out a few and sighed. "Fine."

He was gone in the next instant, shooting with precision into the foray. Alice watched over Hatter's protecting shoulder, seeing him pick out enemies from the cover of the trees with confidence. It was like watching an experienced assassin move, though he wasn't shooting to kill, and when the first of their attackers started to drop with injured knees, she gave a low whistle.

Hatter looked over his shoulder at Alice. "He's rusty."

"Rusty?" she asked incredulously. "Looks... pretty good for rusty."

Hatter arched a brow and she gave him a smile.

"Yeah yeah, keep your tongue in your mouth," Hatter grumbled jealously and she smirked, grabbing him by his collar.

"You know I love to watch you though," she said before she planted a hard kiss on his mouth. When they broke apart, she merely shoved at him and pressed between Guinevere and Arthur for safety. Instead of charging headfirst, Hatter acted as cover for Pidge and the others. The fact that he didn't hit anyone wasn't the point; he was able to get them herded closer and closer. The woods were crawling with men dressed in an array of clothing but as Alice watched from over Arthur's shaking body, she could see that most were bearing old heart insignias on their clothing. Something she hadn't seen since Jack had taken control as King.

Hatter's gun clicked and she heard him curse, drawing her attention away. The men closest to them had figured out Hatter was out of bullets but then, so were they. "Don't you dare!" she yelled over the gunfire at Hatter but he was already traipsing into the fist fights going on, dodging knifes and fists with some accuracy. _What I wouldn't give to have something weapon-like,_ Alice thought as she bent over and grabbed a heavy stick from the trail-side just in case.

Watching Selena's group was like seeing a prison brawl, with the way men were fighting so desperately; it wasn't hard to imagine this group acting as a resistance force though they had no real refined fighting techniques. Alice kept an eye on Hatter and Pidge, watching as the latter abandoned his now empty gun and was using an empty shotgun to whack against heads. Like Hatter, he more resembled a street-scrapper than someone formally trained, but her lover seemed to be doing fine. Hatter slammed his right fist into one jaw with a devastating crack and Alice winced, hearing Chesh hiss as well on her shoulder.

"As much as I hate to admit this," Chesh whispered in her ear, "but I don't think he's ever used his right hand to its fullest potential."

Watching Hatter move on, Alice could only nod but she heard a man scream from further up the trail and that kept her from answering. Selena had a man on his knees and her arm was wrapped tightly around his throat. His hands were thrown up in surrender and he didn't appear to be armed at all. Alice stared at her, seeing the knife in her hand, and knew that none of that mattered to the Snake. She was going to kill him just for getting in her way and as Alice watched, she slit his throat without any signs of hesitation. Alice opened her mouth to yell but felt a boot catch her on her back, shoving her down into the leaves and dirt followed by a hard strike to the back of her head. Arthur and Guinevere both spooked, leaving her without their protection, and Chesh leapt from her shoulders into the nearby tree branches.

Rolling over to her side, Alice narrowly dodged the boot coming down again. Her attacker was the man Hatter had broken the jaw of, and she got to her hands and knees, ready to spring to her feet when she saw the boot coming to kick at her abdomen. Every instinct screamed a warning at her and she threw herself to the left to avoid the blow. It was a blow she would have normally taken in order to get closer to her attacker but she couldn't risk it, not now. She caught a punch to her face for her efforts and the pain that shot through her eye was almost blinding enough that she temporarily forgot all of her years of training. He had put enough force behind the blow for her to feel dazed and she fell to her side.

"Alice!" Hatter shouted and she saw him from the corner of her eye struggling to get to her. The sun sent a reflection from a knife onto her face and she turned her head up to see a knife coming down towards her chest. Fear constricted her, and she was unable to move, knowing it was too late to maneuver herself to block it.

 _I've come too far for this_ , Alice suddenly thought; she was remembering her kidnapped mother and Charlie, and then, suddenly, she knew she had to protect her baby. Maternal instinct flared up inside of her and she threw her hands up and shut her eyes, feeling a sudden surge of warmth go through her. There was a loud thud and when she opened her eyes she saw that her hands were glowing in front of her face, blue light forming a translucent shield over her. It crackled with energy before slowly dissipating, though her skin still glowed almost pure ivory. The man had been thrown back from the force of his own blow and he was scrambling to his feet. He recovered quickly, charging at her again and Alice stuck her foot out, catching him in his stomach, twisting him over her and onto the ground again. The knife went clattering away and they both rolled toward it, grasping at the hilt.

Alice hung on tenaciously and rolled to her back, shoving back with her hands as the man pulled hard. He let go unexpectedly and the knife slid in like it was going through butter, slicing into his ribcage and up into his heart as if it had been perfectly aimed. It took only a moment for them both to register what had happened as they looked from each other, to the knife, and then back to each other. Hot blood spurted from the wound through his clothing and onto her hands where they still grasped the hilt of the knife.

The man she had stabbed stared at her, his face frozen in an expression of agony. Alice stared back up at him, her hand still holding the hilt tightly as horror swamped her.

_What had she done?_

The man collapsed forward with a grunt, his eyes rolling back in his head as his chin dropped to his chest. Alice shifted out of the way, narrowly dodging him as he fell dead. She stood, staring at his prone body in shock, and then she realized that her hand was feeling sticky and hot with his blood. Glancing down, she dropped the knife in her hand, letting it fall noisily onto the trail while blood from the man's wound seeped onto the leaves, turning them bright red. She couldn't stop staring at him and without thought she pressed her other hand to her mouth to keep herself from vomiting with shock.

The sounds of fighting around her seemed to become muted and her hand shook as she raised it to stare at the blood that coated her skin. It was still bright red but was rapidly drying, forming a sticky layer on her hand. Unable to stop shaking, Alice wrapped her arms around her middle. She was hardly aware that the fighting was stopping around her until she felt a hand touch her shoulder.

"Alice?" Hatter asked softly, his grip tightening a bit. "You okay?"

She turned into him, and held up her hands slowly, showing the blood stains. "Hatter... I... I..."

He read it in her face, her shock and the dawning self-hatred, and pulled her tighter against him. He had seen what had happened and knew the reason for her shock. She had never killed before, had always found ways around it, and now she had experienced it in all of its terrible nature. Alice was shaking so hard that it was tricky to hold her and he whispered to her to try to calm her down.

"I say that was marvellous!" Pidge declared as he came up to them. He didn't seem to see Hatter's warning look and he swung Alice out of his arms and looked at her excitedly. "I've never seen magic like that before. It was something to be told and retold time and time again! You are bloody brilliant!"

Alice was still staring sightlessly when he spoke but at his words Alice shook herself. The look she gave him was more effective than Hatter's hushed order to shut up, and Pidge looked away from her. Alice slipped back under Hatter's arm, still trying to stop shaking from her shock, and she felt his hold on her tighten.

"Bit of a sloppy kill but good enough I suppose," Selena muttered as she came up beside Pidge. Her men were gathering up their attackers, binding them all together. Selena looked over her shoulder at them. "Make sure a few are left coherent enough to be used for information. We'll go for a bit further and set up a camp soon so we can have a proper interrogation."

At her words, Alice remembered the ruthless way she had killed a man. Pulling herself away from Hatter, Alice walked a short distance away.

"Pidge, help Selena." The order was curt and unexpected from Hatter, so that both of them opened their mouths to argue with him but Hatter gave them a warning look. Alice had turned her back on them and she was stiff as a board, the rigidity in her posture showing that something was wrong. Selena narrowed her eyes but found her arm caught up by Pidge's and he was pulling her along impatiently.

"We should help them," Alice said after a while, turning around. Her face was pale and stricken but she had a determined look to her that Hatter hadn't seen in a while.

"In a minute," Hatter answered and she shook her head.

"We don't have time," she stated stubbornly and she went to walk by him. Hatter grabbed hold of her arm and stopped her.

"Alice." She turned her eyes to him, eyes that were shining with unshed tears, and he reached up to brush his fingers over her cheek. "You'll need to talk about this. I know... I've..."

"Not now." She stated firmly and pulled her arm from his hand. Hatter could see the blood still staining her hand and watched as she clenched it into a fist as she went to where Arthur and Guinevere were standing together near a copse of trees. Releasing a breath he had forgotten he was holding, Hatter shook his head and took off his hat so that he could swipe his hand through his hair. He'd have to get Alice alone to talk about this and soon, or she would bury it forever if she had the choice, letting it stew until it exploded in some other way.


	18. Interrogation and Allocation

They were only able to get so far down the trail before Selena turned off the path and led them all down a hillside into a ravine clearing that was more secluded. Her men followed without question, dragging their new prisoners with them, and leaving little choice for the others. It caused a fair amount of suspicion from both Pidge and Hatter, so much so that Pidge didn't relent in badgering her about it; even with his suspicions, she didn't answer any of their questions. Instead, she merely ordered her own group about and they quickly began to tie up their prisoners to some of the stronger trees that circled the clearing.

Hatter didn't dismount from Guinevere and simply rested his hands on her neck, giving her an absentminded scratch now and then. His attention was split between a far too quiet Alice who rode beside him and the struggling prisoners who were spitting out curses in a variety of Wonderland languages.

"You'd never think that some of these men were so formally educated eh? The way they speak?" Pidge said, sounding like a disapproving schoolteacher as he led his own horse over to them. Hatter glanced over at him and shrugged.

"Do I even want to know what they are saying?" he asked as one spat out a guttural phrase at him that sounded particularly vile. Pidge listened to the small tirade the man went on and then shook his head.

"Nah. I think even you would blush about this one. Or knock his head off. Either way... better left unsaid."

"Brilliant," Hatter muttered and he reined Guinevere over to where Alice was sitting on Arthur. She was watching the scene without any expression, but her hands betrayed her nerves in the way that they were twisting and untwisting Arthur's sparse mane. Hatter looked her over, the sight of her bruised cheek and split lip still upsetting enough that he had to keep his hand tight to his side to keep from wanting to punch something, and not once did she looked back at him. After a moment he sighed, bumping Guinevere a bit closer to Alice and Arthur.

"You all right?" he asked as casually as he could. Alice worried at her lower lip and nodded, not once meeting his eyes. "Alice, look at me."

With a child-like reluctance, she turned her head toward him and lifted her chin a bit higher. "I'm fine, Hatter."

His eyes roamed over her face, taking her in thoroughly and after a long moment of this inspection she had to look away, unable to take his scrutiny any longer. Hatter watched her reaction and knew that the flash of pain he had seen in her eyes had been very real. He wanted nothing more than to pull her down from her horse and make her talk to him but he knew if he did that she would just resist him all the more. Much as he didn't like to think about it, he knew that if she didn't come to him soon he'd have to manipulate her again to get her to talk.

That was something he was going to have to think over very thoroughly in order to avoid her possible anger.

"We're going to stop here for a few hours to rest the horses. And to... ask some questions," Selena's voice was like an intrusion and Alice took the distraction she offered. She dismounted from Arthur and Hatter followed, Guinevere butting her head against his shoulder.

"You think they'll answer you?' she asked and Selena shrugged.

"We have our methods."

That cryptic comment made Hatter roll his eyes. "Depriving them of bread and butter?" he asked sarcastically and Selena gave him an innocent look.

"You know the routine. Just a matter of heads or tails who gets to do it," she quipped and then looked expectantly at Alice. Hatter followed her eyes and saw that Alice was watching them in confused suspicion. Selena's innocent expression seemed to slip for just a minute, a grin flashing on her face before disappearing before Hatter could call her on it. "You know all about that, don't you, Alice?"

Alice looked at Hatter and he stared back at her, not speaking. He saw her shoulders shift and knew that she was adjusting the Cheshire on her shoulders. He could have snapped at Selena for speaking that way but there was little point. She was trying to provoke him deliberately.

"Alice, did you want to see..." Hatter began but she shook her head, starting to twist her fingers into a nervous knot again.

"No, Hatter. I just need some time to myself," she answered too quickly. She pulled her coat collar up near her face, hiding half of her face. Hatter frowned and reached out to touch her cheek, finding her skin cold and that her jaw was rigid. She gave him a shaky smile. "I'm fine, Hatter. I'll just take care of the horses instead."

Wordlessly, Hatter nodded and handed over his reins to her. Alice didn't look up at him as she tugged both horses after her to where Selena's men were tying their own animals but Hatter couldn't stop watching her. She seemed to have withdrawn, clearly lost in some self-reflection, and it was unlike her. Hatter exhaled slowly and began to rub at the back of his neck to ease his own tension. Moving beside him, Selena looked from Alice to Hatter several times and noted his expression with quirk of her lips. She clicked her tongue and shrugged her shoulders.

"She seems troubled." When Hatter didn't answer, she continued, "Maybe this is hard on her? This world isn't her own; perhaps she isn't ready for it." Hatter looked over his shoulder at her, narrowing his eyes. "When we reach the Metropolis, you could consider having her kept safe in an inn or something similar. I do not think she has the strength for a journey like this."

Hatter snorted rudely. "She's stronger than you know, Selena. She's just not a killer..." He paused and she grinned.

"Ah, not like the rest of us, hmm?" she asked.

"Not at all, and I'm thankful every day for that," he answered. He turned halfway toward her and she stepped close, crossing her arms over her chest and tilting her head far to the side. Her eyes roamed over his face in a searching way.

"You haven't told her everything, have you? What your function really was in the Resistance? What you did to protect your own interests? Who you... took care of?" she goaded and Hatter didn't answer. "She likely thinks you were just a trader, hmm? Or some sort of simple spy?"

"Stop it," Hatter warned.

"What are you so afraid of, Hatter, that you won't tell her? Are you afraid she will be repulsed by your actions, by that slice of your past that you hide so well?" Selena stepped closer still, her proximity making him uneasy. "It may come out eventually, you know, that you were nothing better than a killer. You even killed a relative of yours, didn't you? Not exactly innocent actions on your part. How will she deal with your lies in the end?"

With a suddenness she hadn't expected, Hatter grabbed hold her arm and gave a warning squeeze with his right hand. She made no sound but he saw the sudden spark of pain in her black eyes. "To save you, as I recall. Don't twist this, Selena," Hatter said lowly so that she had to strain to hear him. "I don't have the patience for your games. I know that you are trying your usual moves; the years haven't changed you at all."

She smiled sweetly at him though her eyes were cold as she twisted her arm out of his grip. "Interesting, how... self-protective you still are, Hatter."

"I'm protecting her, Selena; don't call it what it's not. I know what you're like, even if Pidge and Alice don't quite realize it." His eyes went over her face and she glared back at him. Eventually, he released her arm and stepped back, nodding to the group of men bound near the trees. "Which one caught your eye?"

Taking the hint, she looked them all over and then pointed to a burly looking man with a bruised face. "One in the centre. The other men are avoiding being tied too close to him and those that are close to him have been following his lead."

"Strongest one," Hatter muttered, troubled by the sight she had pointed out. He hadn't realized the group dynamics until now; was he actually slipping up like she was inferring? "Means he will be harder to break you know."

"All the more fun," she said and Hatter resisted the urge to shudder at the relish in her voice. He knew what she and Pidge were up to and the thought made him uncomfortable. If Alice wasn't around, he might not have thought twice about what they wanted to do. But she was close and the chance of her figuring out was going on made him wonder what would happen if she saw this. However, he had no better ideas, especially if these were trained soldiers like they suspected.

"Let's get this over with."

* * *

Pidge was all too willing to be a part of the interrogation, almost seeming to teem with anticipation and ordering Selena's men about, much to her irritation. She didn't speak on it though; instead she began to plait her red-streaked hair and all the while a tiny snake slid around her fingers as she did so. It made Hatter's skin crawl to watch the snake's weaving action and he tried not to watch. If he thought he could get away with not being here, he would have tried for it but he wanted to hear some of this with his own ears.

The man they had singled out sat obstinately in front of them where he had been tied, the area haphazardly sheltered by brush and small trees. He had not stopped swearing and snapping at them the entire time he had been dragged forward and one of Selena's men was suffering from a decent black eye now from one of his flailing elbows. As Pidge had pointed out though, there was one thing they didn't want to do and that was let the apparent ringleader get the better of them. Binding him was the first step to bringing him down, he claimed, and they needed to continue to humiliate him to get him to talk.

Sitting on a fallen tree log, Selena relaxed and rested one leg over the other, her eyes going from Hatter to Pidge critically. Both men were standing on either side of their captive, neither having made a decision on how to proceed. They had been sitting for over ten minutes, murmuring lowly, but nothing had been done. Hatter, feeling her look, turned his head slightly and raised his eyebrows, causing her to sigh.

"I suppose **I** have to take care of this?" she fumed.

"No no, darlin'. I think I can take care of this," Pidge said, standing before she could get to her feet. He gave her a hard shove so that she sat back down and then walked over to his horse. Pulling back the flap of his saddle-scabbard, he drew out a short croquet mallet carved in the shape of a flamingo and raised it over his shoulders. Hatter watched with some concern though his expression never betrayed it. Pidge whistled lightly, a merry tune that seemed utterly out of place with their surroundings and both Selena and Hatter looked at each other. Something in Selena's gaze made him look away and he glanced over his shoulder to be certain that they were alone, that Alice was not just over his shoulder. The way that Pidge was twirling the mallet in his hand made him uneasy as to what he was about to do with it.

The ringleader stared defiantly at Hatter and Pidge. "Are we going to play good card-bad card?" he asked snidely. Pidge didn't answer him, merely sat cross-legged and twirled the mallet with easy skill.

"You know, I have to admit that I haven't had to use this lately," he commented, lifting the head of the mallet and blowing imaginary dust from it. It was an antique that he clearly treasured, the heavy mahogany wood well polished and protected. Pidge continued to inspect the mallet before continuing, "Haven't had need to."

Without any warning, he suddenly twisted the mallet sharply in his hand and slammed the head of it into the ringleader's kneecap. There was a loud crack of bone fragmenting under the force of the blow and the man screamed, raising his knee in reflex to the blow. Hatter closed his eyes and looked away from the sight of the large man whimpering in pain. Years ago torture like this was the norm in their world but after years being out of this side of the 'business', he had no stomach for the sight of it.

All the same, he didn't stop Pidge as the taller man began to tap the mallet against the ringleader's now broken kneecap. Each tap caused the bone to crack further and the man bit hard into his lower lip to keep himself from crying out.

"Still has a decent ring to it. I tell you, the old things tend to stay very nice if you care for them just so." Pidge had his eyes on the craggy face before him and he waited until the man took the effort to meet his eyes. "What's your name?"

The ringleader shook his head, struggling to not give into the pain in his leg. Pidge shrugged and picked up the mallet again, this time swinging it down hard so that it cracked into his shin. The bone splintered instantly under the impact and this time the man managed to stifle his scream, though it cost him dearly as his teeth went through his lower lip. Blood dripped from the fresh wound and Pidge looked at him expectantly, tapping the mallet against his kneecap again.

"Lars Mordecai," he answered finally. At Pidge's raised eyebrow he squirmed and tried to pull his leg away from the tapping mallet. "My ma liked the author."

"Really? I hated the 'Quantum of Travel.' Now that was a dry read and make no mistake," Pidge admitted and behind him Selena huffed, not interested in their reading habits in the slightest.

"I think this is going easy on him," Selena muttered crossly. Her black eyes were narrowed and her tongue kept flicking to the corner of her lips. The tiny snake was still crawling around her hand and she held it out menacingly. "This could fit in his ear, you know."

"Don't be disgusting," Pidge commented, never taking his eyes from Lars. The man was staring up at Hatter, frowning, and Pidge gave him a harder tap that forced him to look over at him. "You attacked us. I'm sure you have a good reason."

"We were given our orders," Lars admitted and Pidge looked at him expectantly, his blue eyes flicking over his face. "Orders that we succeed or die."

"Orders to?" Hatter asked for Pidge and Lars sniffed, looking away from them and clearly not about to answer. Pidge clicked his tongue and twisted the mallet in his hand again, slamming the head against the broken kneecap. Hatter winced at the scream that Lars gave as broken bone began to pierce through the skin of his leg, and looked again to see if anyone else had reacted. Strangely, Alice was still out of sight and when he looked back around Selena and Pidge were both staring at him.

"Bit edgy, eh?" Pidge asked.

"Sorry but I'm not thrilled at the thought of Alice witnessing this, let alone watching it meself," Hatter answered tersely. Selena squinted at him and then looked back at Pidge, who sighed and stood to walk over to the younger man.

"Things like this are necessary," he pointed out and Hatter flexed his fingers.

"In our world, but she's an Oyster. Alice shouldn't have to see something like this," he answered and heard a very faint intake of breath from the injured man. Selena sat before Lars and stared at him, her black eyes capturing his like a hypnotist.

"You knew that the Oyster named Alice was with us?" she murmured.

"No," he said in a monotone voice, his gaze never wavering from hers.

"Then why were you attacking us?" she persisted and his bound chest heaved as if just talking to her was hurting him.

"We were tracking the remnant glow of another Oyster, one going to be used..."

"Used?" Hatter and Pidge both turned around and stared.

Lars clamped his lips shut as if he was going to lock his mouth from saying anything more. Selena eyed him up and down, her eyes lingering on his broken kneecap. He twitched his leg away, groaning at the pain caused by moving it.

"What do you mean by used?" Pidge asked, nudging Selena out of the way again. "You used to work for the Queen, didn't you?"

"We worked for the White Rabbit."

"Same thing," Pidge answered and the man scoffed.

"Hardly."

"What did you want the Oyster for?" Hatter demanded and Lars looked from Pidge to Selena without once looking at Hatter. His eyes focussed on Selena's and she stared back at him.

"Bait." Unnerved by her eyes, he finally looked at Hatter. "Bait for death."

Selena glared at him while Pidge threw up his hands in disgust. "Riddles and cryptic commentary... must be a Wednesday," Pidge complained.

"It's the Second Tuesday," Hatter corrected in an absentminded way and moved away from them. Selena and Pidge looked at one another and Pidge cleared his throat.

"Since you're so uncomfortable with our techniques... why don't you let us take care of this? You can listen in," he offered, trying to keep himself as neutral as possible. What he thought of Hatter's recent turn in personality was nothing more than that of a concerned friend; he did not sound disgusted like Selena had. Hatter seemed to think it over and without looking again at Selena or their captive, he clapped Pidge on the shoulder as he passed him. Selena watched him go and moved closer to Pidge.

"He's changed. Gone soft." She sounded cold and calculating but she didn't miss Pidge's shake of the head.

"Changed yes but I don't think he's gone soft, Selena. I think you've got more reason to be scared of him now that he's got something to protect." He locked eyes with her and then shrugged before he looked at Lars. "So, do you want his other kneecap or his fingers?"

Selena's black eyes glimmered like onyx caught in the light. "Fingers."

* * *

He had spent several hours, listening to the faint whimpering coming from the shelter of brush and trees where Lars was being interrogated, and yet not once did Hatter see Alice. She was being watched, he was assured, but other than that left alone, though several men said she had been talking to herself. It hadn't been hard to figure out that she was likely talking to Chesh, a turn of events that troubled him considering what that cat could be up to. He was almost just as suspicious that she wasn't talking to the Cheshire but to nothing at all, and that was just as bad.

Tempting as it was to find Alice and speak to her, Hatter had stopped himself from going to her. He had made the choice to stay near Pidge and Selena, overhearing whispers of what the group had seen before their attack, and he knew that he needed to hear this with his own ears. The story had taken several dark twists and the fact that Lars had been surprised by what they had found did not bode well for their own travels.

In one of the deep tunnels, Lars' men had found a mass grave of corpses; almost all the bodies had been people they had recognized from the City and the old groups that had once been in existence in Wonderland. Lars' own mole in that group had been brutally killed and there had been no sign of the attackers. More importantly, the Oyster had been missing.

Which led Hatter to feeling more useless than before and he had spent most of this journey in self-doubt as it was. Though Carol and Charlie's kidnappers had been brutally executed by the sounds of it, they themselves had not been recovered. There had been no trace of who had taken them but there had been no signs of them either. Nothing but a discarded piece of white armour and the signs of an Oyster glow that had been left behind. They were back to square one, in Hatter's opinion, and he wasn't quite certain where to go with this.

After the last particularly gruelling session, Pidge had reappeared finally, wiping his hands on an already blood-soaked handkerchief and shaking his head. No more information could be taken, he had told Hatter after explaining what the younger man had already heard. After Hatter's questioning look back at the brush, Pidge had uncomfortably explained that Selena was going to ask a few more questions. But Hatter knew what that meant and it made him suspicious. Where in the Resistance such things made sense, there was no call for that now; they should be turning him and his cohorts over to someone with more authority.

Yet when he had brought that up, Pidge had simply stared back at him before calmly suggesting that Hatter had been out of the game too long.

Disgusted with himself in how he had sat so idly by, Hatter had kept to himself long after it went dark. Alice had come to the fireside to have something to eat before retreating to lie alone, and he had stared after her as she made her place by the far side of the fire. He was longing to go and talk to her but not daring to chance it just after he had watched Pidge torture someone. He had had no stomach for food and had gone off himself, close to Alice but still alone. He needed time to process everything he had heard; needed time to think of some plan that wouldn't place Alice in the danger he was starting to feel she was coming close to.

Hatter leaned against the tree, his legs crossed at the ankle as he tilted his head back. He couldn't sleep for several reasons and all of them seemed strangely important. He didn't feel remotely safe or trusting of their companions, especially since Selena had proven to still be acting as judge, jury, and executioner. That Pidge had stood by to let it happen made Hatter distrust him as well and Selena's men, while outwardly friendly, were still her men. Even with all that mistrust, Hatter was as disturbed by them as he was by the idea of having more nightmares. He had been so badly shaken by the last one that he couldn't stand the idea of another. He didn't want to see the bastardized version of his mother again and he didn't want to see the insides of his own mad mind where Alice and his friends were nothing more than tormented souls.

Not when he had seen Alice so badly threatened today that he had nearly lost her. When he had seen that man about to kill her, he had felt the tight control he had over his own mind start to slip and the madness begin to crack through. He had always known that it would be so simple to let it out but he hadn't realized how much his control depended on Alice's existence. If she had been hurt or killed...

His skin crawled at that thought and he forced himself not to think of it. That was a dangerous path that he couldn't chance going down. Besides, she was safe and close by and he planned on keeping her that way. If for nothing else but his love for her and his sanity did his own resolve to keep her safe felt stronger than before.

Hatter pulled his hat low over his eyes and tilted his head down to stare at his injured hand. What could he do if Alice asked him what had really happened, if she asked what had happened to the one missing man in the group? There was no answer to give her and he didn't have the heart to lie to her about this, not when his own lies of omission were starting to crack. Selena's earlier words had shown how close that was to happening.

The revelation that he could lose Alice because of his past was an unacceptable one. He also knew that Selena would continue to bait him as some form of petty revenge for how badly things had ended between them years ago and that was not Alice needed to learn about it. Resolving to tell Alice the moment he could get her alone, Hatter shut his own eyes and tried to force his body to relax into a nap. Suddenly, there was a faint whimper and his eyes snapped back open, recognizing the sound. Alice made such sounds when nightmares about the White Queen and her father troubled her.

It took him a moment to know what had to be done but without a second thought he moved quickly to where she was sleeping near the dying fire. The men on watch merely looked at him before continuing on with their own conversations, clearly thinking it was not their place to question him or his Oyster. Alice was far enough from the fire that anyone who was not as aware of her as he was might never have heard her. Alice was shaking under the blanket and when he knelt behind her and pulled it from over her head he saw that she was holding a fist against her mouth, her teeth glinting in the moonlight against her skin. She was biting into her own fist to keep herself from making noise and reaching out Hatter pulled her hand away from her mouth.

"Luv," he murmured and she rolled to her back at his touch. Her eyes were glinting with tears and he brushed his finger over her cheek. "Alice..."

"I killed someone," she whispered and he quickly laid down beside her, stretching out on the blanket.

"Come here." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight against his chest, feeling her hands burrow beneath his shirt to press over his heart. Tucking her head under his chin, Hatter turned onto his side and tugged her closer, her hips fitted against his as his hands stroked her back and hair.

"He didn't deserve that," Alice whispered and he nodded, not speaking. She continued to babble, sometimes making sense and other times not at all, and he let her do so, her voice muffled by his own body. He knew that she needed to talk about this and no speeches about his own experience would help her. He merely pressed his head close to her own and let her whisper to him about her own guilt, never once answering or interrupting her. He could feel someone watching and though his skin crawled at the thought that their intimacy was being observed, he didn't dare let Alice go. She was more important to him and he pushed his own troubles from his mind and simply held her closer still.


	19. Blinds in Bluffs

The lower jail in the Palace was normally a dank, dreary place, rarely used and very rarely visited. Any prisoner brought to the Heart Palace was stored there prior to their interrogation and then just as quickly relocated to the more populated and cramped Lake Prison beneath the City's Blue Lake. The last visitor to this jail, with the exception of the Red King's failed coup, had been the deposed Queen of Hearts herself. During her own imprisonment, and under Jack's rather vengeful order, things had been kept the same for her. Dreary and uncomfortable; something he had decided his mother deserved after years of comfortably tyrannical rule.

The current Queen of Hearts, however, had been treated to far better accommodations. The jails had taken on a similar presence to her rooms far above: luxurious, comfortable, and warm. It was a clear sign that she was being treated differently than the previous prisoners and with far more affection. None of her guards believed she was capable of planning her own husband's murder and had gone against the Council's orders to bring her anything she needed to be comfortable. Yet, the only thing she found real comfort in was one of Jack's old coats and she kept herself firmly wrapped in it throughout her time in the jail.

The familiar scent of his cologne seemed to keep a part of him close to her in her memory and she would often press her face against the collar.

Abelard's declaration had astounded the Council but they had not hesitated to pour over every legal document they could find regarding succession rather than trying to either incriminate her or release her. The possibility of assuming Royal Responsibility was too tantalizing for the lesser Houses. Each page and direction they took came to the same conclusion; thanks to Wonderland's dizzyingly bizzare rules, the Hearts were the only ruling Card family and to suggest that any other Suit take it was almost illegal. The Hearts had worked the rather threadbare legal system to their benefit hundreds of years ago and it still stood as an almost airtight seal. Though the greater population may have resisted the elder Queen of Hearts' rule, they had also known no other way, which was why they had waited for Jack Heart to come of age before truly rising against the Queen.

Now the Council, left in charge of Wonderland, was left with a conundrum. Did they dare to release the only other Heart Royal, a known tyrant and murderer, or did they allow the current Heart Queen go to rule Wonderland? Either way they were going to be faced with difficulties. Abelard did his own best to prevent the release of Mary Elizabeth but now there was word of unrest in the South and North. People who had supported the old Queen were starting to appear from the shadows and working subtly to get her free once again; bribes and prison riots were quickly becoming routine news.

Amelia, stuck in the basement of the Palace, could only sit and overhear the troubles through gossip. She knew that whatever she said would only be seen as a way to save her own neck, and it had made her determined to become almost an non-entity. She had her own plans now, plans to escape and find her son and she knew that she had to wait her turn. The perfect moment would come when the Spade and Diamond guards stopped suspecting her every move. But she was going to have to be patient and bide her time.

The sound of doors opening made her jerk her head away from her pillow and sit up straight, patting at her hair self-consciously. Framed by the iron doors was Abelard, and just behind him he was flanked by the current guards and two new ones. The guards all wore the traditional gear of Executioners rather than the plain suits of the normal Cards. The face masks they wore were those of the Suit they represented; a Spade ran down the bridge of one man's nose while a red Diamond mask covered the other from forehead to chin. The masks were made to intimidate and, though Amelia knew this, it worked on her as well.

"Your Majesty," Abelard said, giving a short bow. "I bring you word from the Council."

Amelia took her suspicious eyes from the Diamond guard and looked at Abelard. "Oh?"

"Please do not look like that, Majesty. If you are concerned that orders for your execution were signed, rest at ease. I am trying to stave that off as long as possible. Circumstantial evidence is not going to prosecute you," he explained, obviously trying to comfort her. Amelia simply stared back at him, finding no comfort in wondering when her execution could be approved. "I am simply here to inform you of a turn of events."

"And you brought your executioners to join me for...tea?" She asked dryly, jutting her chin out at the silent guards.

"Bodyguards for you, Majesty. And guards. They will prevent your escape and cannot be bought or bribed by those wishing to assassinate you." Abelard came further into the jail and took a seat across from her. "The imprisoned Queen Mary is being brought before the Council for interrogation. She claims to know who may have kidnapped your son."

"Knowing the old bitch as I do, her hands are likely bloody in this mess," Amelia spat out, standing and putting her hand over her eyes. Abelard cleared his throat at her language but wisely kept his mouth shut. "Is this worth the risk? You know that there are those that may stop at nothing to keep her from returning to the Lake Prison. You may be risking insurrection. Jack's ascension only worked because it had been so thought-out to make the transition seamless."

"We have to chance it, my lady. If possible, we may able to learn if this indeed is the work of traitors who want her reinstalled," Abelard insisted. "We will not chance her escape!"

Amelia turned her back on him and walked over to the clock hanging over her bed, staring at her own distorted reflection for a moment.

"The Council's own men have been able to pick up the trail of your son." The change of subject didn't phase Amelia but she had to stiffen her posture to prevent the urge to cry out at the thought of her poor child. "The trail had been cold but they received a... tip regarding his possible location."

She turned slowly on her heel. "A tip from whom?" she demanded and watched as he dropped his own eyes. "Abelard!"

"From a Heart supporter, milady. One of the more minor family branches who had..."

"Been loyal to Mary Elizabeth?" Amelia offered, her tone deadly calm. He nodded.

"But he swore under pain of death that he was truly loyal to King Jack Heart," he put in but Amelia gave a sharp bark of laughter.

"Please. Stop."

"This is good information, Majesty. We can recover your son and be able to keep the Queen of Hearts under control," Abelard continued.

Amelia stared at him from eyes that were quickly growing cold. "You are a fool, Abelard, if you don't realize that she remained Queen for so long based on her wits alone. She is an enemy I don't think the Council is ready to face again."

* * *

Becoming the prey changed things quite drastically for Hatter and Alice, and both were up long before the sun rose over the treetops. Since discovering that they were being tracked, there was no question that they were going to have to move faster than ever before. The forest seemed to come to life the moment the sun hit the leaves and with a faint whistle of wind, it was almost a normal place once again. Makeshift breakfast and a weak form of tea had been the only comfort they had chanced and with unspoken agreement both Alice and Hatter kept silent to prevent the others from waking too soon.

The night had been long for Alice but even longer for Hatter. After letting Alice talk herself till she was no more than a weary heap in his arms, Hatter had simply hummed an old lullaby to himself and lulled her to sleep as best as he could. But there was no convincing his own mind that it needed to rest. Instead, he had lain awake, Alice cuddled against him, and tried his best to shut down the constant activity in his mind. The ache in his hand and his head had merely increased to the point where the pain kept him from sleeping. Then he had dropped into a doze that kept him just awake enough to hear every little sound in the surrounding woods.

Considering his previous nightmares, Hatter hadn't been too upset to see the daylight without the benefit of much sleep. Alice hadn't noticed beyond a comment about the circles beneath his eyes and Hatter had kept himself busy to try to keep her from really noticing. He didn't want her to worry about him, especially since nightmares for him were a common thing. But since the last one had affected him so badly, had been so very strong, he just couldn't bear to fall victim to another one just yet.

Hatter was tacking up Guinevere and watching Alice groom her own horse when he realized that the camp was due to be waking up soon. The dawn was making the shadows recede and he had to blink at the brilliant sunlightt starting to creep through the trees. It highlighted Alice's pale skin and he tipped his head on the side, watching her and wondering, as he had been lately, if something was more than a little changed about her. She looked drawn and pinched, as if her restless night had exhausted her as much his sleepless night had done to him. She was moving slowly, taking her time in rubbing Arthur's coat with a cloth and humming lowly in her throat the same lullaby Hatter had been humming the night before.

Guinevere's head lifted suddenly and she snorted, ears pricked forward and Hatter looked away from Alice to see that someone was joining them.

"Gods you two are up early," Pidge complained as he came up behind Alice and gave her a friendly nudge with his shoulder. Alice smiled at him before pushing her hair behind her ears and turning back to Arthur. Pidge had a point; besides him and Selena, who was only just now appearing from her own bedroll, no one else was awake.

"Early bird and all that. What we scrounged for breakfast could have been worms for all it tasted," Hatter muttered. Pidge frowned and looked at both of them with a raised eyebrow.

"Nice mood this morning, I take it?" he asked and Hatter sighed, letting his stirrup fall back down after buckling the girth. Alice was checking Arthur's rear hooves and Hatter leaned in closer to Pidge, dropping his voice so that only he could hear.

"You know how I felt about killing that man but you let her do it," Hatter hissed.

Pidge gave him an incredulous look. "Has either of us ever been able to stop her from doing something?" he pointed out.

"Next time either of you decide to go 'old school' in the extreme, count me out of it," Hatter snapped and turned back to Guinevere. Pidge stared at him in surprise and then leaned back against a nearby tree. His lean frame looked utterly relaxed but the way he eyed Hatter was anything but.

"You **are** in a foul mood today. Likely going to stay for the whole day, isn't it? Even if I bring you some good news?" he offered. Hatter didn't look at him but Alice unbent and stared at him, dusting her hands off on her riding skirt.

"It's very early, Pidge. Can't you just spit it out?" she asked wearily. Pidge shrugged.

"No fun that way," he started, clearly ready to banter with her.

"Pidge!" Hatter's voice was crackling with irritation. Already not a morning person, long hours with no sleep had left him grumpier than normal and he didn't face the prospect of another long day's ride with much enthusiasm.

"Interrogation had an interesting reveal, if you must know," Pidge said, dropping his wordplay immediately. "They went to the Drawling Cavern."

Alice gave him a blank look that earned her an exasperated sigh in response and without pause, Hatter interjected with, "Legend has it that it is a very old place, Alice. Supposed to have been locked up tight by the very family that carved it out of the ground." He looked at Pidge. "That's just a myth as it is."

"You know that myths often stem in reality," Pidge argued and Hatter gave a relenting grunt as he finished bridling Guinevere. Pidge waited for them to ask him more questions but neither seemed to be in the mood, effectively ending his input in their morning. Annoyed at being ignored, the taller man watched them both before coming so close beside Hatter that he actually seemed to overshadow him. His voice dropped low, his blue eyes still darting around the clearing. "I take it you both are... uncomfortable in these surroundings?"

"That's putting it lightly," Hatter answered as he fixed his mare's forelock under her browband.

"I don't blame you."

Alice looked at Pidge again, noticing that he was staring at where Selena was muttering to her own men. "Why should we trust you over them?" she asked bluntly and even Hatter looked at her in surprise. The question had come from nowhere it seemed and it had caught Pidge a bit off-guard so that he had to think over his answer.

"Absolutely no reason springs to mind. However, I think we had all do our best to keep on guard until we get to the City. Depending on which path we take," he explained and then was walking off by himself toward Selena. Alice stared after him for a moment before turning and looking at Hatter again.

"What is he talking about?" she demanded and he shrugged, leaning his arm over Guinevere's neck.

"Usual Wonderland thing. About a billion ways to get from one end to the other," he answered dryly, before yawning loudly. Alice's eyes flickered over his face and body.

"Did you get any sleep last night? I wasn't up for that long," she questioned, unable to keep the concern from her voice.

"Not sure I want to sleep, all things considering," Hatter muttered.

"I love you but you look like hell," Alice said, and when he didn't answer she turned around to tighten her saddle again. His sudden grip on her shoulders and the forceful way he turned her made her lose her breath, staring up at him from equally exhausted eyes. Hatter's fingers trailed up her arm to cup her cheek and she closed her eyes at his touch.

"That kinda concern makes me think you're flirtin' with me," Hatter joked, pressing her back against her horse. Alice grinned up at him playfully, her own exhaustion forgotten.

"I would think you're too tired to flirt back with me if I was," Alice responded, feeling his breath brushing over her lips.

"Oh you **are** flirtin' with me again. Trying to take advantage of us being alone?" he asked, teasing her by being just out of reach. His lips just touched her when Alice jerked her head to the side, a thought springing to mind with his words. Hatter, unaware what he had said, groaned in exasperation and tilted his head on the side, pursing his lips at her. He had been frustrated away from touching her intimately yet again and his tired nerves were not appreciating this development.

"Alice," he ground out, resting his hand on Arthur's saddle, effectively trapping her between himself and the horse. She was looking all over the clearing, anywhere but at him and Hatter had to resist the urge to clear his throat to get her attention where it belonged.

"Hmm?"

"How easily you just got distracted is just a mite bit insulting to my ego, ye know," Hatter explained and she gave him a distracted smile.

"It's just..." She looked around. "Have you seen Chesh?" Hatter blinked and looked at her shoulder pointedly but she shook her head. "He's not there, Hatter. He hasn't been there since last night."

"And he knows better," Hatter muttered, looking around. There was no sign of a cat anywhere around their campground; even the misty trail left by an evaporating beast was nowhere in sight. "But I don't see him."

He looked at Alice and she sighed, fingering the bracelet on her wrist. "We did warn him," she started and Hatter held out his hand. She handed it over and winced as he promptly crushed one of the tiny charms between two fingers. There was a tiny puff of smoke and the distinct smell of burning hair that followed made Alice wrinkle her nose in disgust. Hatter and her stared at one another and he shrugged, turning on his heel and narrowing his eyes. After a minute a high pitched sound filled the air and Alice winced, reaching up to rub at her ears, yet Hatter didn't flinch at all.

A trail of smoke seemed to drift by his shoulder to settle on Guinevere's saddle and the mare rolled her eyes in suspicion at the sight, her nostrils flaring repeatedly. Hatter rubbed her neck and waited, eyes on the smoke trail. Slowly, with almost painstaking precision, the smoke began to take the shape of a cat. Every hair and feature seemed to take forever to come into sight, the careful detail like watching an invisible paint brush being wielded in the air.

Eventually, though, the Cheshire Cat came back into full sight and there was no question that he was angry. His tabby fur was raised as his tail wagged back and forth furiously, while his ears remained flattened to his skull and his large cat-green eyes narrowed. He made a threatening yowl at Hatter that simply made the young man shrug.

"We warned you."

"How easily you kill," Chesh snipped, fury making his voice sound strained.

"When it comes to you, Chesh, you should count your lucky stars that I didn't just crush all those damned charms in my hand. Wouldn't have to put up with you, now would we?" Hatter answered. Alice sighed and rearranged the bracelet on her wrist.

"Where were you?" she asked, trying to keep her voice calm. She could understand Hatter's distrust perfectly and was not about to side with Chesh over this.

"Out for a walk," Chesh said sarcastically. The cat's head lifted and he leapt from Guinevere's saddle to the top of Arthur's saddlebags. "If you really must know, I had thought my presence wasn't to be missed. One has to try after all. Apparently neither of you are as stupid as you appear... congratulations."

Hatter opened his mouth to answer him but Chesh disappeared quickly, leaving only his grin behind for a moment so that it would make them uneasy. Giving Alice a pointed look, Hatter crossed his arms over his chest and clicked his tongue. She stared back at him,confused by his look; it was as if he was considering something.

"What?"

His eyes roamed over her face. "Nothin'. You feelin' okay though?" The change in subject made Alice look at him in surprise but it was clear that Hatter didn't think Chesh was worth worrying about. "I heard you this morning when you went off on your own; last night's meal bothering your stomach? And don't hit me for sayin this but you are lookin'... green."

"I'm fine. Likely because of yesterday's... events." Alice turned her head away and after a few more seconds of looking at her, Hatter shrugged and turned to Guinevere. Biting into her lower lip, Alice stared into Arthur's deep brown eyes and the horse snorted at her. Turning on her heel again, Alice reached out and touched Hatter's coat sleeve to turn him around. "Hatter..."

"Hmm?" He was tugging on his coat collar, flipping it to ward off the morning chill. After it was fixed to his liking he grinned at her and traced his fingers over her shoulder affectionately. Alice stared at him and put her hand over his.

"Hatter I... need to tell you something," she said and began to drag his hand down her chest. His fingers were just over her solar plexus when he gave her a perplexed look, not sensing any seduction in her movements. Alice took a deep breath and stepped closer to him, her hand bringing his lower still. "I've been wanting to tell you..."

"Tell me what?" he asked, concern almost shining from his eyes. Alice made to answer when she noticed someone standing just behind Hatter. Feeling her attention diverted yet again, Hatter turned his head and saw that Selena and Pidge were clearly about to intrude on their conversation. Pidge was glaring at Selena but the woman was ignoring him again in favour of staring at Hatter and Alice.

Alice let Hatter's hand drop away from her stomach and sighed in exasperation. Hatter reached out and gripped her hand, clearly wondering what it was that she didn't want to share with the others.

"Are we interrupting something?" Selena asked curiously.

"Yes," Alice spat out, turning around and fixing Arthur's reins over his head. Hatter let her go and frowned, unable to help but be a bit confused and concerned about her mood change. He looked at Selena expectantly when it became clear that Alice was not about to continue.

"We're going down the Underground Channels," she explained at his look. Hatter frowned and then glanced at Pidge, who was staring at Alice curiously. He nudged him hard and Pidge jumped, all at once trying to seem innocent.

"Hmm?"

"She wants to go to the Channels? You do realize how crazy that sounds?" Hatter demanded and Pidge shrugged. Alice turned around, one hand still on Arthur's saddle.

"Channels?" she asked warily, giving Hatter a look that said she was starting to tire of these endless changes in direction.

"They're like the Tunnels in the City. They run underground, let us get past guards and I've even been able to sneak up into the Metropolis that way," Pidge interrupted, scratching at the back of his head. "But..."

"It's very dangerous?"

He blinked. "How'd you know?"

"Isn't it always?" Alice's voice was teeming with sarcasm and Hatter arched a brow at her. She grabbed hold of Arthur's bridle and began to lead the gelding away. Selena slipped off after her and when Hatter went to follow Pidge grabbed his arm.

"You know how dangerous the Channel is?" At Hatter's nod, he sighed and shrugged. "I tried to think of a better route, honest. We'll just have to be on constant alert and pray that no funny business goes on."

They stared at one another for a long moment and Pidge finally grinned. "Which is hoping for too much eh?"

He began to straighten his coat, intent on following Selena and Alice now.

"Pidge," Hatter began in quiet but firm voice, pausing as he fixed his reins with meticulous care. His friend looked over from beneath his dark hair and at Hatter's serious expression his own jovial grin faded. Hatter reined Guinevere closer to himself and rested his hand on her neck. He looked at Pidge from beneath the brim of his hat, which made his face seemed shadowed and threatening. "I'm trusting you now; a lot more than I do with most people."

"You think I'd put you both in danger?" Pidge asked, his voice equally quiet.

"I'm not sure what I think. What I do want though is your word that you'll not put Alice in harm's way if you can help it. Especially with Selena around." Pidge frowned at the tone of Hatter's voice.

"Something is wrong, isn't it? Something you know..."

"I'd bet my Tea Shop on it," Hatter answered and sighed. "You betray us, I'll kill you, are we clear?"

"You won't have to. I'll take care of your girl when you're not around, no worries."

Alice was aware of Selena following her and at first thought nothing of it, since she was so lost in her frustration. It had been a good moment to tell Hatter finally, maybe even the last chance she would get until they reached the Metropolis and Hatter's last remaining sources, and Selena and Pidge had taken that from her. If she hadn't known better, she would have sworn that they had both waited until the last moment to interrupt her. After all of this hesitation, her final acceptance of her pregnancy had made her almost eager to tell Hatter and that moment had been taken from her.

It was making her already volatile mood changes worse and she had to refrain from exploding and causing a scene.

Realizing that Selena was still behind her, Alice finally had enough of holding in her temper and turned abruptly on her heel. Arthur snorted in irritation when she pulled on his mouth. Selena did a graceful leap back to avoid colliding with her and Alice couldn't help but glare at her. She wasn't about to admit to this woman that being around her slight and graceful form made Alice, who herself was smaller boned, feel downright gigantic.

"What?" she demanded and Selena arched a brow at her.

"Merely wanted to be sure you were okay. Yesterday was a bit... troublesome for you?" Her fingers lifted and she brushed a red strand behind her ear. Alice looked her over and couldn't keep the sarcasm out of her own voice.

"I'm sure you were worried." Her arms crossed over her chest and with a frustrated sigh she tipped her head on the side. "What do you want?"

Selena leaned against a tree and shrugged. "I felt obliged to warn you, this is likely a various undertaking for all involved."

She gave Alice a thorough once-over that was almost concerned but still snide enough that it made Alice grit her teeth.

"I'll be just fine," she answered and the smaller woman shrugged.

"Suit yourself." The Snake's eyes went over Alice again. "But in your present condition, I would think you'd be taking more care."

"What about my 'present condition'?" Alice asked, her voice dangerously calm and quiet. Nothing gave away the sudden rise of panic that threatened to make her blurt out something she would regret later.

"What exactly do you know about the South?" Selena countered.

"Likely the same as the Taiga. Dangerous because it is so weird," Alice stated dryly and earned a cool smile for it.

"Hardly. The Taiga followed rules, Alice. The South Forests and Channels? They follow no rules. Anything goes there and that has been the end of some people... and families." That said, Selena merely turned away and walked back to her men, leaving a confused and wary Alice behind her.

_Just what exactly was she hinting at?_


	20. Topsy Turvy Channel

The South-Ouest Channels reminded Alice of the Underground tunnels of Wonderland City, at least for the first few days of travelling. It had the same long twisting paths, poorly lit and crumbling at some points, with high buttresses to support the dirt ceilings. The carved buttresses, fine but cracked marble covered in twisted vines, were the only signs that the paths weren't completely natural. They formed an almost elegant though ancient hallway to ride through, and sometimes Alice was able to forget where they were travelling through. Every few miles or so, the Channel paths would follow a different long slant up into the sunlight and run for several more miles in the light outside, before descending into another path below the surface. The constant changes in light and shadow made for days that blended into barely distinguishable nights, spent on rough roads with equally rough company.

Alice would have thought that novelty of travelling in a group had finally worn off by the fifth day... had there been any novelty to it to begin with. It was easier to just avoid small chit chat and avoid the petty arguments that continued on between everyone. Alice spent much of her time alone, taking in the surroundings with poorly disguised unease. The paths made her feel strangely claustrophobic and it took her some effort to keep down her panic in the beginning. By the third day she had started to get used to it but even that didn't make her wonder what could happen if they took the wrong step.

No one else seemed too worried about that and their self-confidence did ease her own doubts somewhat during the long days.

The fifth day seemed to drag longer than the others. There was now the more exhausted and numbing sensation of being too long in the saddle; which made them all dismount now and again to walk long stretches of time. The paths seemed to be narrowing and Alice wondered how long it would before they could take their horses no further. The prospect of walking many more miles was almost as dreadful as riding that distance. But when the ceilings began to occasionally brush her hair, Alice had to admit that it was looking more and more likely.

The ground heaved suddenly beneath her, sending Arthur stumbling and Alice leaned forward to keep her weight from pulling the old horse down. The Channel seemed to do this frequently and while the riders had become used to it, the horses were still struggling. Hatter had remarked that Guinevere seemed to be going lame because of the constant stumbling and Alice had noticed that poor Arthur was also sore from it.

Vowing to make sure her horse got plenty of rest at the next stop, Alice turned her eyes to Hatter, hoping to catch his gaze.

The fates were against her again as they had been for the past five days. He was clearly dozing, swaying with Guinevere's easy walk, and his head was dropped to his chest. From beneath the shadow of his hat she could see that his eyes were closed, his face relaxed. It was unlikely that he was sleeping though; his right hand was twitching and clenching.

"One would think," Chesh purred in her ear, "that either Hatter is avoiding you, or his friends - and I use that term loosely - are keeping him from being alone with you."

Alice eyed the others around her but they were all too deep in their own conversations to notice her talking to the invisible cat on her shoulder.

"You finally got bored enough to talk to me, hmm?" Alice responded. It had been five blissfully silent days since Hatter had "killed" the Cheshire. Alice had never known that a cat could pout but then again, Chesh wasn't a real cat.

"Hours of silence on your part were wearing thin," Chesh admitted. "Perhaps we could have a bit of debate on the merits of toths versus borogroves in their territorial habits."

"You'd do better to debate with Hatter on that," Alice commented dryly. "That is rather... dull subject, even for you."

"Boredom will do that to you. I much prefer to chat about our comrades though." She felt his tail brush her ear and resisted the urge to shiver. "For example, do you not find it interesting that, despite her rather crass habit of speaking her mind at the wrong moment, this Snake clearly knows you are pregnant but has yet to spout off that information to your Hatter?"

Alice jerked so forcefully that she accidentally pulled too hard on Arthur's reins and he shook his head at her grip. She felt the colour drain from her face and forced herself to take a deep breath, giving Arthur an apologetic scratch on his neck. _How had Chesh known? How did he know that Selena knew?_

"Oh, don't seem so shocked. I've known since I met you at the Train station. Animal instincts and all that, a rather sordid side effect of you turning me into a beast. Also, being magical myself, I can see when your 'glow' isn't just a magical glow anymore." Chesh's head appeared just under the curtain of her dark hair and he gave her his eerie grin. "Your secret is safe with me."

"Until you decide the most optimal time to disclose it to Hatter, likely manipulating him to make it seem like I'm the bad guy in not telling him?" Alice countered and the cat's grin widened further, his ivory canines glinting dangerously.

"Of course. What kind of sociopath would I be not to take advantage of your obvious fears? A poor one indeed," Chesh stated. His round head turned a complete circle so that he looked at her upside-down. "So, out of sheer curiosity, why haven't you told him? You have had ample opportunity, I would think."

"Call me crazy, but I had thought that maybe this should be something private between us," Alice ground out between clenched teeth. The Cheshire chuckled and his head rotated back around.

"I suppose. But if I were you, I'd be more worried if his madness is hereditary, you know. I mean, his father had it, his grandfather had it and so it goes farther back until the beginning of Wonderland when that family line came into existence. His mother must have been mad to have married a man bred to traditional insanity. Of course, then there is you..." Chesh's great green eyes were staring at her when she turned her attention fully on him. "You must clearly be a little mad not to be frightened of him."

"I'm wondering if I'm crazy for letting you live instead of letting Jack execute you like he planned," she muttered in irritation. She felt Chesh stretch on her shoulder.

"So I take it you have a good reason for not telling Hatter yet?" he asked. Chesh was clearly pleased at knowing something Hatter didn't and Alice had the suspicion that the cat was going to drop as many hints as possible just to lord it over him. "I find it amusing, you Oysters and your sense of sensibility. Really, it has no place in Wonderland." He stretched and Alice felt his paws vibrate slightly on her shoulders. "Though it is an endearing quality, perhaps it is one you had best discard; seeing as how you have adopted this world as your own."

"Are you finished?" Alice asked half-heartedly, a bit too loudly she realized when she saw Hatter's head jerk up. He shook his head before he looked over at her, raising an eyebrow in question. She gave him a weak half-smile and he looked away, obviously puzzled.

"I do wonder what profession he was in for the Resistance those years ago," Chesh murmured in her ear. "At first I thought he would have had minimal amount of intelligence and only be able to do the most menial of jobs..."

"Chesh," she snapped and out of the corner of her eye his head seemed to roll closer.

"How does that appeal to you? That the father of your child was likely a hired killer and is clearly keeping things from you?"

His words struck a nerve and it took all her self-control not to crush one of the charms. Chesh's grin widened impossibly far, and he clearly knew that he had struck a nerve. Alice took a deep breath and shut her eyes, and after a count of twenty she finally opened them and turned her head on the side to look back at the Cheshire.

"So you're still scared of him?" Alice said instead of the biting words she was tempted to use. His ears flattened against his skull and she smiled. "There's no shame in admitting that, as 'magical' as you are, he beat you into a bloody pulp last time you were a man."

"He got lucky," Chesh grumbled, having been caught out with something he did not like to admit to.

"Or maybe you aren't as strong as you think you are. So I suggest you keep a low-profile, help us when we need it and maybe, just maybe, we can get you out of this humiliating animal form of yours and you can spend the rest of your miserable life in a proper jail." Alice tsked her tongue. "Then you can continue to have a nice long hate for the rest of your life."

She tugged on his tail hard and felt his nails sink in _just_ slightly against her skin. "So just sit there and shut up."

She felt the faint wisp of warm air against her cheek and knew that he had become invisible again. It gave her a strange sense of relief that he had finally quieted again and she relaxed her hold on her reins to the gratefulness of Arthur. The horse shook his head vigourously back and forth before continuing on, stumbling again over the change in the footing. Since Chesh had successfully managed to distract her for a little while, Arthur's stumbling made her pause to take in her surroundings. They were still close to the surface, an occasional hole in the ground above providing additional light from the sun, but there was no vegetation around now. Just dirt and cracked marble chunks.

"Alice?" Hatter called out over his shoulder and Alice looked over to see him turning in his saddle again, bracing one hand on Guinevere's back. She pressed Arthur in a jog, squeezing him past two other horses until they came beside Hatter and his mare. She flashed him a quick smile that dropped quickly when she saw what he had been wanting her to see. The path they had been on was no longer the same with small differences; now it was far more drastic.

The Channel had changed shape, the ceiling curving around to the sides and making similar to a horizontal cylinder. The once shadowy paths had been well-lit though fog trailed along the edges of the dirt floor. Chewing on her lower lip, Alice glanced to her right and immediately jumped in reflex. Her reflection shone back at her from a concave mirror that ran from the ceiling to the floor and, from as far as she could tell, it seemed to disappear into the distance as well. The mirror seemed to actually be the wall and when she checked the other wall, Alice saw that it was the same. Rolling her eyes to the ceiling, she saw herself staring back at her and Alice pursed her lips in thought.

Reaching out to the wall closest to her, she ran her hand lightly down the surface. She was expecting to feel glass but found that it felt like warm, moist dirt. There was no hint of glass or smoothness under her fingertips though her eyes were telling her it should be that way. It was like touching the sides of the other tunnels but looking at it was quite another thing. Her own reflection stared back at her and Alice couldn't help but frown at herself.

"It's an illusion," Chesh said in her ear and she jumped, startled by his voice.

"He's right," Hatter admitted beside her, reaching out to poke at the walls curiously. "Supposedly the mirrors aren't really here and this is all a trick of the mind."

"Sometimes it's enough looking at my own ugly mug just to shave but now we've got a long tunnel of reflection," Pidge said suddenly as he appeared in front of them. He pulled his horse to a stop and slide down from his gelding. "It is too low to ride through: we'll need to walk the horses and even then I can't remember how far we can go with them before it gets too low."

Alice rubbed at her shoulders, suddenly more aware of the chill in the air now that they had paused to look at this change in surroundings. She breathed on her cold hands for a moment, bringing a tingling sensation back to her fingertips.

"How far are we from the City? It's been almost a week of riding and I think it has gotten colder the further we've ridden," she pointed out and Pidge shrugged.

"These things change all the time. You see, Alice, these Channels... they aren't actually man-made like the Tunnels are, except for the sides braced for safety of course. That in itself presents more difficulty in finding the perfect route to the City. We travel faster this way but we run more risks," he explained and Alice gave Hatter a confused look. He sighed and swung his leg over Guinevere's neck, lowering himself gingerly to the ground. He took a moment to stamp some feeling back into his feet and legs before he looked up at Alice.

"Legend has it that the Channels have been here since Wonderland came into existence. They've never been mapped out properly except for a few routes and even those change in distance and shape," he explained. Suddenly appearing between Hatter and Pidge, Selena almost seemed to slither into the conversation.

"I don't remember it taking this long to get to the Changing Hall myself," she stated gruffly, giving a pointed look at Pidge.

He rolled his eyes. "Selena, darlin', your impatience is never ending. We _are_ close. Remember? Tunnel of Glass then the Changing Hall. Just a matter of getting to the Tunnel of Glass and now we're here."

She sniffed. "This might have been easier if we had taken the shortcut I pointed out earlier."

"And we would have likely ended up right in the desert that way. It was completely Ouest, not southouest." Pidge was obviously irritated and Alice pursed her lips, glancing at Hatter. He was looking at Selena and then at Pidge with equal blandness, which told her that something was going on in his mind that he didn't want to share with anyone else. Something was bothering Hatter still and considering how hard it was to get him alone, she wasn't sure if he could tell her any time soon.

"This runs parallel to the City lines, though the Channel is a bit more topsy-turvy than I remember," Pidge was saying and Alice focussed back on him and Selena. Pidge met her eyes before he looked at Selena again with a sly smile. "Let's not make people suspicious as to why you wanted us near the Barren Desert, hmm?"

Selena glared at him. "Knock it off, Pidge. You were lost until I pointed out the correct elevation."

"This might be askin' much, but can we just get moving? And hopefully without you two bickering?" Hatter asked wearily. The way he asked it made him sound so exhausted and Alice dismounted from her gelding to step up beside him, unable to keep the concern from showing on her face. Selena and Pidge both went back to the front, grumbling and bickering as they pulled their horses along.

"So... what's the deal with the mirrors?" Alice asked as she and Hatter started off. He made a face, stepping closer to Guinevere to give her more room beside him on the path.

"It is mostly hearsay and whispered stories. No one knows anything about why the tunnel looks like one big mirror, it just does." He rubbed at his right hand thoughtfully. "Never been down here, actually, and I've been to a lot of places in Wonderland. When I was a kid though, I heard stories and none of them remotely happy tales. Now supposedly, it shows snippets of your past or present, sometimes the future... and it twists them. When the Colours were in charge, the people who were brought here by the Southerners loyal to them would be placed in the Tunnel of Glass and forced to stare at their own reflection until they cracked."

"Doesn't seem like a terrible punishment for someone vain enough to enjoy it," Alice joked and Hatter chuckled.

"I guess... but mirrors tend to... distort reality, even a little. Twisted perfectly, even the best of the Resistance would crack under such pressure and I'm pretty sure that some of Wonderland's craziest in the Hospital of Dream were brought here way back when. With the right amount of manipulation, the torture could reveal more information than intended and I bet it backfired on the loyalists somehow. A few times the mirrors in the ceiling cracked and collapsed, killin' more than a few people and they stopped usin' them all together, just before the final War in the Taiga." Hatter ran his hand up the side nearest to him and watched the glass ripple under his touch. "Somehow, fifteen years ago, they suddenly were found to be unblocked and almost normal. Smugglers have been usin' them ever since, especially when escape from the Hearts was necessary."

It took her a minute to absorb his min-history lesson and she thought it over in silence before realizing what he was hinting at. Hatter didn't like being down here but he didn't want her to be scared of the unknown. Alice shook her head, smiling. "Hatter, how you remember all of this still amazes me."

"You know me, a regular fountain of information, mostly useless," he declared. "Family trait. What we forget is more than can be contained by any library. But gives me a bit of a steel trap of a mind, eh?"

Leaning over to him, she playfully tapped his hat brim. "Ever get crowded in there with all that information?"

Hatter rolled his eyes. "Oh you have no idea, Alice. Sometimes it'd be useful if everything could just empty out for a little bit."

"Then we'd really be lost," she said dryly and he reached out, taking her hand and pulling her closer.

"Always a way out, just have to look for it," Hatter answered. Giving her another smile, he started to lead her down while continuing to chatter about the mirrors. When Alice wasn't looking, he suspiciously looked to his own reflection and, seeing nothing, he relaxed just enough to whistle under his breath.

* * *

Even though she had relaxed enough not to be frightened by their surroundings, Alice kept close behind Hatter and glanced at the mirrors now and again. Like he had warned, images were playing out in the backdrop that made no sense to her; the sort that were mangled bits and pieces of the others pasts and playing in no real order. Due to the shape of the mirrors, it was like being in some twisted fun-house and Alice caught sight of her own distorted reflection. It made her whole body seemed to be protruding at the most awkward of places and for a brief moment she had a glimpse of what she would look like heavily pregnant.

 _Oh, just like a whale. Perfect,_ she thought grumpily.

Just as quickly, the image distorted again and made her head seem swelled to over three times its size. Making a face at herself, Alice self-consciously pushed her hair behind her ears and turned to try to keep up with Hatter's pace. The horses followed obediently enough, the only sign of their growing unease in the constant twitching of their ears. Alice couldn't blame them; the tight space was starting to make her feel ill again and gently she tangled her fingers in Arthur's mane, scratching at his neck as they walked. The ground was still heaving at odd intervals but since no one else was reacting to it, she decided she should try not to as well.

Curiosity tugged at her and she licked at her lower lip, eyeing the back of Hatter's head. He had been quiet for the past half-hour or so, simply holding her hand and whistling a soft melody as he went. Eventually he had let her go in order to follow the others single-file and Alice hadn't really been tempted to look for any reflections about him. He had warned her not to look because of the reflection's distortions of reality. Now that he was apparently not paying attention to her, she couldn't help herself from feeling free to look.

She waited for the ground to do one more heave before turning her attention to look at the glass-illusion walls. They were rippling around the image of her own body, shifting and pulling apart the colours in the wall. Suddenly, Alice saw her father in the reflections. He was identical to how she remembered him just before he had disappeared when she was a little girl. He was tossing a child version of herself into the air, laughing as he did so and Alice saw that she was laughing as well when he swung her around in a circle. Then the images swirled and warped quickly into her holding his head up as he died in her arms. The sight of herself weeping uncontrollably made Alice suck in a breath and look quickly the other way. The pain of that moment was still too fresh, even after more than a year, and she closed her eyes, finding her way blindly as she managed to get her emotions back under control.

Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes again and looked again at the reflections. So many were playing out now about the men in front of and behind, so many pasts and presents that it made Alice struggle to focus on what belonged to whom. None of it she recognized but there were memories and moments of pain and grief, love and laughter, everything that anyone could experience. After a moment of staring at the reflections of Selena's men, she focussed on Hatter and the shadow he was reflecting.

But there was nothing.

She frowned and took a step closer to the wall, straining her eyes in the dim light to see what was playing out beside Hatter. Alice wondered if maybe she just wasn't looking hard enough and squinted her eyes. Still, nothing but a shimmery reflection followed him and Hatter didn't seem to notice his surroundings nor the lack of history playing out beside him. Unlike the other men who would watch their own pasts in fascination, he seemed to be resolute in not looking. Alice looked from the walls to the back of his head and, puzzled, she even looked up at the ceiling to see if maybe something was going on up there.

But all she could see was the top of Hatter's Homburg hat and she couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. There was no telling what any of this meant. Hatter had referred to his mind being a steel trap; did that mean everything was locked in so tight that a place like this didn't affect him at all? Alice had brief moment of thinking that that wasn't very fair but then remembered that she was in Wonderland and its sense of fairness was rather twisted.

Clicking her tongue impatiently, Alice glanced at the walls again, determined for it to be the last time she looked at their reflecting sides. She jumped, colliding with Arthur's sturdy form, when she saw someone apparently following Hatter's reflection in the walls. The men behind her grumbled loudly, one shoving roughly at her shoulder to get her moving but Alice ignored him, her brow furrowing deeply at the sight on the walls. They gave up quickly on moving her and one by one they started to squeeze by, not wanting to be trapped in the narrow corridor any longer than they had to.

On some instinct, Hatter stopped mid-step and turned around, clearly thinking she had tripped. He scowled at the expression on her face, looping Guinevere's reins over her head and giving her a clap on the shoulder to keep walking, trusting her not to wander far. The men he stalled grumbled about the hold up and he let them pass before he went back to Alice. She was staring at the walls still, something Hatter had been avoiding doing and he waved his hand in front of her face. She jumped again and Hatter frowned, not expecting that.

"Alice? You all right?" he asked, coming around to stand between her and the wall. "Not like you to just stop flat out like that."

"Yeah I'm...fine. Just the walls. I think they're making me a bit motion sick." Alice still looked at the reflection of Hatter over his shoulder. His reflected back was there, like normal, but instead of seeing herself over his shoulder, she saw the woman she had seen in the mirror back in the Port Town. The strange woman's silvery hair was a bit wild, standing straight up from her scalp, while she was staring with an almost sly expression at Alice. She had one arm braced on Hatter's shoulders as she leaned over him and her eyes were half-closed while one hand traced over the leather of his coat collar. Never breaking her eye contact, the woman leaned her mouth up to Hatter's ear and seemed to be whispering to him.

"Oi!" Hatter snapped his fingers and Alice shook her head. The woman was still there, the brilliance of her green eyes showing even the dim light and her smile was sadder now. Alice leaned closer to Hatter to get a better look and noticed that the woman's face was now marred by black scars from the bridge of her nose towards her right cheekbone.

"You don't see her?" Alice asked and at his confused look she pointed at the wall behind him. Hatter did a prompt turn on his heel and then back again, tipping his head on the side as he looked Alice over.

"I think I need to get you out of this place, Alice. You're startin' to sound like me," he joked but at her disconcerted look he reached up and removed his hat to ruffle his hair. "Alice, you really shouldn't be watchin' the walls. Enough to drive someone crazy, seein' their past like this."

 _Why is your past not showing then?_ she longed to ask but wisely she nodded and ducked her head. She peeked up and saw that Hatter's reflection still had that woman draped over him, whispering into his ear. Alice looked up at Hatter and saw a vaguely distracted look in his eyes, one she knew as the look he got when he was thinking something over. She looked from him to his reflection and out of the corner of her eye she saw Hatter shake his head at the same time the woman's reflection faded from view.

The distant look left finally and he reached out, taking her hand. "Come on. Let's catch up with the others. With luck we'll be out of here soon."

 


	21. Slow Play Trap

Hatter was surprisingly accurate, which Alice felt thankful for, considering that Pidge and Selena had done rather poorly when it came to guessing time and distance. After only ten more minutes, the Mirrored paths came to an abrupt end that had several of Selena's men whispering uneasily amongst themselves. Hatter had not let go of Alice's hand, figuring it was better for her if she stayed close to him and not be distracted by the walls, and she had found his grip comforting after that vision she had seen in the walls. As they came up behind the others, Hatter gave her hand a squeeze and finally let go before he moved between the others to where Pidge and Selena were both standing at the exit of the paths. Alice quickly handed Arthur's reins over to one of the men and followed, wondering what the hold-up was now.

 _Likely something else standing in the way,_ she thought wearily, rubbing at her stomach when it grumbled impatiently. Without the benefit of real sunlight, she had no way of knowing the time but her sudden hunger made it clear they had been walking for too long since breakfast. She gave her stomach another thoughtful pat and continued to weave her way between Selena's men, trying to ignore the way they were all arguing between themselves.

"It has nothin to do with sense!" one snapped as she passed him. "We shouldn't have come this far down. Close runnin' and fast, but dangerous!"

"You know the boss, always a workin' in her mind," said one of the thinner men nearby. Alice frowned as she listened to them but kept going, squeezing through with a final shove. Hatter and Pidge were standing together, Pidge leaning against the wall while Hatter glared up at him.

"I thought we were by-passin' this," Hatter was whispering angrily. Pidge was scratching at his temple with the head of his croquet mallet, a thoughtful look on his face before he shrugged.

"I thought we had been. I mean, we came the proper way and last time I came through here, the Glass Tunnels led to the Changing Halls... not to here. Roads change though, you know that," he admonished and Hatter shook his head in irritation.

"I thought we had wanted to avoid anythin' that'd be treacherous, Pidge," he snapped. "We had agreed to that."

Suddenly, from somewhere below them, Selena spoke. "Shut up, you two. I'm trying to track the movements."

Alice moved between Pidge and Hatter, pushing her way through them with a murmured excuse. The two men moved just a bit for her, Pidge poking Hatter in the side with his croquet handle and earning a nasty look for doing so. Feeling like she was getting in the middle of two schoolboys about to fight, Alice moved as fast as she could but had to check herself before she went forward too far and landed on top of the Snake. The other woman was crouched low, one hand on the ground before her, and Alice realized that they were standing on the cusp of yet another Channel path. Selena was staring intently at something in the distance and Alice followed her look, ignoring the two men arguing behind her.

Where the other Channels had run just below the surface yet been dim, this path ran deeper but was brilliantly lit by flashing green and blue streaks of light that flashed dizzyingly by. The entire Channel seemed to be more of a wide cavern than a tunnel and it was a welcome change from the narrowness they had just escaped. Coming to stand beside Selena, Alice stared down... and down... The dirt path dropped far down and into a checkerboard floor made of rusted red and white blocks and she couldn't tell if it was wide or narrow. The floor seemed to pulse with a glowing light, the way a warning light might beat a rhythm, and she glanced up, wondering if there was an answering glow somewhere along the path. On the other side she could see yet another way out, glowing in bright sunlight and with a sigh of relief, she looked over her shoulder at Hatter and Pidge.

They were staring at opposite sides of the new Channel and even Pidge seemed troubled, raising his hand as if to touch something before lowering it. Alice glanced at the far-off walls and saw quickly why both of them so uneasy about this place. The walls were not solid, nor even a singular colour, and bore no similarity to the Tunnel of Glass they had just left. There were no mirrors or reflections and after a moment of thinking it over Alice had a brief memory of being in high school. She had been in a boring science class then and her teacher had been struggling to teach them about the solar system and the natural world. In an attempt to make them interested, he had let them watch a clip of the Northern Lights on the television.

This put those to shame, in her opinion, and Alice couldn't help but gape at the sight. There was no solid shape to the walls; instead it seemed that the walls were not stable but were swirling shades of purple and black. The shadows in the room being pushed by some fierce wind, Alice thought though she felt only the stagnant air of the tunnels around her. It certainly sounded like a windy day, while brilliant flashes of colour danced in and out of the darkness and swirling into the shadows impatiently. Over and over again it happened, giving the impression that the walls were like part of a galaxy being sucked into numerous black holes.

"I never thought I might prefer the mirrors but then again, I forgot we might have to deal with this," Pidge grumbled beside her, not impressed by their surroundings. Alice looked at him and he met her look with piercing blue eyes. He made her feel like he was trying to see if she was frightened. "It's nothing to be terribly worried about, Alice. These paths are old but beyond here it is clear sailing for all of us. I just don't like this way at all, never have, never will."

"Nothin' to like," Hatter snapped, swiping his fingers over the brim of his hat. The nervous tic made Alice wonder what was going through his mind now. "I don't know this way at all. Or at least nothin' springs to mind about it."

"I don't like it either," Chesh whispered in Alice's ear, so low that no one could hear the invisible Cheshire's voice. She twitched her shoulder to silence him and licked her lips nervously as she too looked around again.

"What is this place called?" Alice asked and Pidge scratched at his chin.

"Used to be called the Conduiti-Chao Path. Not many people come here, beyond the religious fanatics that believe this is where Wonderland was born from. They believe anything made from Chaos is holy, I suppose, but to me it is a place avoid if another path is presented," he explained. "It's a dangerous path to take in some ways."

"Doesn't seem so bad. Walls are just a bit... nauseating, that's all," she tried and below her, Selena snorted rudely.

"Oh, it isn't the walls that should concern you." The rejoinder made Alice look down at her and Selena looked up, her black eyes almost seeming like hollow pits in her face. "The danger isn't in the walls but in the path itself. I've been tracking the movement of the flooring. Just wait a minute and watch very carefully. Keep an eye on the tiles."

Crouching down beside Selena, Alice trained her own eyes on the checkerboard tiles. For the first time, she noticed that it did not extend all the way near them or to the exit of the path but only a quarter of the way, leaving a drop off that was sheer darkness. Even the shape of that section of floor was jagged, like a puzzle piece that needed another to complete it. The two women waited, Selena counting softly, as the floor's light seemed to pulse out a pattern. Then, suddenly, part of the floor began to break away into the black pit below like crumbling marble until more than ten feet of it was gone. When Alice went to ask what had happened Selena only shook her head and pointed. The tiles that had fallen seemed to rise from the darkness again, rebuilding to form another piece of the floor closer to them. It slid into place with a solid thunk and Alice felt her heart pound a bit harder at the sound.

"That right there is the dangerous part. People have died here, according to some very awful rumours," Selena stated, her black eyes still intent on the shifting floor. "The rebuilding follows a pattern that only the floor seems to know. The tiles simply crumble and rebuild in a way that seems willy-nilly to me. My guess is that they go from back to front constantly."

"What's below the floor?" Alice asked, looking over her shoulder at Pidge. He was staring not at the floor but at her and Selena. When she cleared her throat he shook his head and tapped his croquet mallet against his leg.

"No one knows. The tiles always fall and rebuild; people who go this way either get to the other side or they don't. My guess? What's below it is death. Bottomless pit and all that."

"Would make sense for Wonderland to have such a trap so close to an exit, eh?" Hatter said sarcastically, reaching down and giving Alice his hand to help her up. His grip was almost crushing her hand and it was as if he had no control over his right hand anymore. She gave him a frown of discomfort to which he immediately released her hand. "Sorry."

"Well," Selena began after a pause, finally standing and dusting her hands off on her long coat. "Shortest distance between us and the exit. If we go back, there is a good chance we'll get stuck for another five days and in a worse scenario we end up back here anyway if the Channels shift. So I say we keep together, all of us; we'll be fine. I'll keep in front of my men and we'll lead the horses carefully. If they panic, they could pull us all over the edge."

Her men murmured their agreement and she looked at the other three without any expression. "I think, for a change, that Pidge should lead, don't you?"

"We'll go first," Hatter offered, gesturing to himself, Alice and Pidge. Selena gave Pidge a criticizing look that he merely answered with a cheeky grin and she gave an exasperated sigh.

"If you must. Tot? Get them their horses. You can take Pidge's but there's no use in us getting bogged down behind with that mare and gelding," she ordered the small man just behind Hatter. Her hands twitched over her coat, pulling it closer around her while she looked over Hatter carefully. "Follow the glows and the beats. We all have to be ready to run, you realize? No use in all of us dying if something happens."

"You are just brimming with optimism, ain't ye?" Hatter asked, taking Guinevere's reins from Tot and handing Arthur's to Alice.

"Realism is not pessimism," Selena pointed and Hatter rolled his eyes.

"Right but it is still as damn irritatin'." His look softened just a little. "Just have some faith, Selena. What harm can that do?"

"I've had faith in this before and I know what to expect," Selena stated sourly as she pushed past Alice and Pidge to go back to her men. They both turned to watch her and when Alice's eyes met Pidge's, he shrugged.

"Ever the lastin' ray of sunshine, she is. She's always been like that; course, she likely got it from Hatter," Pidge pointed out, looking over Alice's head at his friend. Hatter clicked his tongue and whistled.

"We're not playin' word games as we go, Pidge. Let's try for some seriousness, yeah?" he instructed.

Pidge sighed. "Must we?"

"For the sake of my sanity, please try," Alice interrupted before Hatter could. "It is bad enough I deal with Hatter's word games. Something tells me you two playing them would be like hearing two little old ladies bicker on a bus."

She headed down the slope, aware of the two of them both staring at her.

"I see why you like her. Keeps you in line eh?" Pidge said as he adjusted his croquet mallet over one shoulder.

"Yep," Hatter answered, "Just don't tease her about her past taste in men before me. She won't like it. Especially since you might remind her of what bad taste in men might be."

"I heard that!" Alice called out over her shoulder.

"Really you two," Selena agreed. "Can you not stop your male territorial scrap long enough to at least follow the precious Oyster?"

"Still a stick in the mud when it comes to fun," Pidge grumbled, nodding to Hatter and striding down the path while twirling his mallet in the other hand. Rolling his eyes, Hatter followed, hearing Selena and her men keeping close behind him.

Once he had caught up to her, Pidge went past Alice, giving Arthur a pat on the rump, and taking the lead with easy authority. Alice, nervous about the changing floor, had no problem with him leading and quickly kept in perfect step behind him. She was aware of Hatter doing the same behind her with Guinevere. Even if he wasn't sure about the flooring, Pidge at least gave the illusion that he was confident about the way he was going and for Alice it was enough to make her focus her attention ahead and not on the swirling colours and strange walls all around her. They had all managed to squeeze down the hill before Alice noticed that the floor had stopped glowing. The ground was starting to shake beneath them again and Pidge held his arms out to the side to block anyone from moving.

"Wait," he ordered; the playful tone of his voice was gone and the only sign that he was nervous was in the constant twirling of the mallet in his one hand. The checkered tiles were shifting around again, and each time one of them shifted into place the ground would shake roughly until they settled. Once the tiles made a jagged but long section of floor over the black pit below, Pidge lowered his arms and put a tentative foot out. Finding the flooring solid, he stepped out completely and waggled his fingers at the people behind him. Glancing over her shoulder at Hatter, Alice saw him gesture for her to move forward and she did so. In reflex she squeezed her eyes tightly shut and she set one foot out onto the tile nearest her.

It felt like solid floor and with a sigh of relief she opened her eyes and tugged Arthur forward beside her. The grey gelding was shaking nervously, his dark eyes rolling at the whirlwind colours around them while he stamped his hooves in impatience. She couldn't blame him and while giving a gentle pat on his neck Alice made sure her grip was firm on his reins. He walked beside her over the length of the floor piece they were on and behind her, Alice could hear the noise of Selena's men following them. How much the floor could hold she wasn't sure but Pidge had already stopped, waiting for another piece of the path to be revealed.

Unnervingly, Hatter was whistling lowly behind her and she turned her head to snap at him since the whistling was starting to wear on her already. But one look at his pale face let her know that Hatter was in no way comfortable with their surroundings and she kept quiet. How they all dealt with fear was different, she decided, and he had said nothing about her being snappish to cover her own fears. The thought of that made her lean just slightly to the left to look over the edge. The black endlessness beneath her made her stomach turn and Alice swayed quickly back upright, pressing against Arthur's sturdy form to balance herself. The gelding nickered and Guinevere answered him, stamping her foot impatiently. Pidge was still counting and when he reached twenty the floors finally glowed once more and began to shift. Alice heard a scuffle behind her and turned to see the last of Selena's men just barely making it onto the tiles nearby before the rest fell away.

"Oh I knew I should have stayed at home," he called out, causing an uneasy laugh to ripple up the group. Alice merely smiled and turned her attention back to Pidge. He hadn't moved but the twirling of his croquet mallet had stopped. As if making some decision, he quickly took ten strides forward and stopped, waiting for them all.

After two more turns at this, Alice began to think that it was an easy pattern to follow; almost like playing 'Red Light Green Light' but with more dangerous consequences. Once or twice Selena's men at the very rear just barely made it onto the new tiles before the other ones started to crumble and the Snake promptly scolded them for it. Pidge kept them all together, never taking a step until he was certain it was safe and because of his sensibility they were getting closer and closer to the exit. The closer they got, the more everyone seemed to relax, eager to get away from this strangeness.

"Now I remember why I prefer the regular roads," Selena said loudly and her men all began to relate stories about the normal Above-ground roads. Their voices overlapped and to get them to stop Pidge slammed the long handle of his mallet down onto the ground. The sound of it striking the tunnel echoed loudly and the loud conversation stopped almost instantly.

"More shakin' like this and I might just get sick," Hatter stated suddenly, breaking his whistling tune and Alice glanced over her shoulder. He winked at her, not looking the least bit ill and she smiled. Hatter was trying to put her at ease and she was strangely thankful for it.

Pidge had stopped once more, watching the flooring rebuild before him, when the entire panel they were on began to do a long ripple. Unlike the shaking, this one was like a carpet being waved out beneath their feet and Alice grabbed hold of Arthur's bridle to keep herself upright. Pidge froze before her, his arms outspread for balance and behind her the others were scrambling to keep their footing. The croquet mallet was still twirling, letting Alice know that Pidge was thinking and once she recovered her balance, she came up beside him.

The tall man was staring at the rebuilt floor, his blue eyes narrowed in speculation. Reaching out, Alice shook his shoulder and he seemed to come out of his thoughts before he looked down at her. Behind them, Hatter was crooning to Guinevere, the mare snorting and dancing around him and Pidge's eyes darted to him momentarily before he looked back at the floor.

"That one didn't feel right," he explained to Alice finally.

"We're close to the exit," she pointed out, nodding to the new path just out of reach. "If we move quickly we can get there easily enough and not have to be on a magical floor."

"That's not what is worrying me," Pidge muttered.

"Can we please get a move on before the floor collapses, taking us all with it?" Selena shouted. Pidge muttered several choice words that made Alice blush but he moved forward all the same, testing the floor again. Alice tugged Arthur along to keep pace with Pidge, finding the new tiles just as secure as the other ones and the shaking seemed to have stopped again. Letting go of the breath she had been holding, she shot the tall man a grin.

"Easy!" Hatter suddenly exclaimed behind them and both Alice and Pidge turned to see that Guinevere's skittishness had escalated drastically. The mare was more than just dancing in place; she was actually circling Hatter, her hooves dangerously close to the edge of the flooring. Her coat was soaked with a sudden white lather of sweat and her eyes were rolling frantically as she began to call out with short frantic neighs. At Alice's side, Arthur was still shaking but at the mare's obvious distress he too began to dance around, as did the other horses behind Guinevere. The mare wasn't about to be soothed by Hatter's voice or by his hand and she pinned her ears, teething baring in fear. Hatter normally never had difficulty with the placid chestnut but Alice could seem him straining to hold her, turning her in another tight circle around him.

The ground did another ripple, pitching up and down, and Alice stumbled back, feeling Pidge grab her arm though he was stumbling too. Chesh, almost completely forgotten, sank his claws into her shoulder to hold on and Alice cried out at the pain of it, moving back instinctively. Still neighing nervously, Arthur backed up to follow her grip on his reins and suddenly he seemed to lurch too far back, as if he was skidding on ice.

Pidge and Alice both felt him move too far and Pidge turned his head to see that floor they were on was starting to crumble rapidly. It was moving in a reverse pattern, he realized, paralysed by fear and horror. Alice was too caught up with trying to keep Arthur calm that she didn't realize that the horse was starting to fall until his whinnying became a deafening blast in her ear. Her boot-heel snagged on the crumbling tile and she fell to her knees, feeling the sting marble cutting into her skin. Chesh's weight on her shoulders made her drop harder but he still didn't move, abandoning human language for a loud yowl of fear. Beside her, Pidge dropped to his knees, dragged down by the joint weight of Alice and Arthur and his grip tightened on her elbow.

"Hatter!" Alice screamed and around Guinevere's wildly spooking bulk she could see him recognizing the danger she was in. With no thought to the others, he dropped Guinevere's reins and sprinted but the floor gave a sudden buck that sent him flying to the tile. He fell to his back, narrowly missing Guinevere's hooves slamming into the floor beside his head. The floor continued to heave and roll, more violently than before and behind Alice she could hear Arthur's hooves clattering on the tile. The rolling action of the floor caused more tile to fall and Alice felt the reins snap free from her hands. With one last mad scramble of his forelegs, Arthur tried hard to keep himself up on the floor and failed. His reins went snaking by a struggling Pidge and they heard the horse calling out as he fell into the darkness below them.

There was no time to react for Pidge or Alice as the ground continued to disappear from beneath them, and Alice felt her lower body get dragged down by the force of the checker-tiles falling. It was like dangling from a ledge and she scratched frantically at the smooth tiles in front of her. She could feel the invisible cat on her shoulders starting to fall as well, his claws starting to rip at her coat. Then the weight was gone from her shoulders and Alice dared to glance down to see his tabby form falling away from her, his yowl covered by the sounds of panicking horses and men.

Pidge beside her still though, struggling to get a better grip on the floor and Alice tried to pull herself up. Hatter recovered from his fall to run at them again. The tiles seemed to rise up, tripping him and sending him skidding to ground again but he was closer this time. His hands stretched out as he came to the edge and he managed to grab hold of them both by the wrist. Alice gripped at his hand for her life, her legs kicking uselessly in the air around her. Pidge too was straining to keep hold of Hatter's hand but his eyes were on Hatter's.

The strain of holding them was clear in his face, sweat dripping down the bridge of his nose as his shoulders strained and bunched. Behind him, Selena's men were all scrambling to get a decent hold of Hatter's legs to help him pull and Alice looked over Hatter's shoulder to see Selena standing to one side, her head tipped curiously even though she was ordering her men to pull. But her attention was dragged away instantly by the feel of the precious bit of flooring still beneath her breasts starting to crumble and Alice gulped for breath.

Without realizing it, she started to shut her eyes only to open them at a faint whistle from the man holding onto her.

"I've got you, Alice," Hatter whispered, his hand suddenly cold and clammy where it clutched her wrist. Alice felt Pidge trying to help boost her up using his free hand but without any solid grip he had no strength to do so. The tiles disappeared further and Alice and Pidge both slid further down until they were dangling by the grip Hatter had on them. Alice looked down below and saw the darkness beneath her, a swirl of blue colour dancing around her face before disappearing again.

"Don't look down!" Hatter ordered loudly, desperation making his voice crack. Alice immediately looked back up at him and saw that their weight had dragged him down so that he too was hanging over the edge. The tiles were still crumbling beneath him and out of the corner of her eye she saw Pidge's grip slipping on Hatter's hand. Unable to scream, Alice could only look at Pidge. The thin man met her eyes with a wry expression.

"Guess even we can be wrong about some things, eh?" he asked and before she could think to answer his hand slid completely from Hatter's. Pidge made no sound as he fell into the pit below and Alice watched in horror as he disappeared from her sight. It was as if someone had pulled a black cover over him, the shadows were so dense. She couldn't look for very long, terror forcing her to look away. Her eyes darted to Hatter as his right hand quickly gripped hers now that it was free, and she met his dark eyes fearfully.

"I'm scared," she whispered over the rumbling of the floor that was still crumbling beneath Hatter. She sounded like a child scared of monsters in the night and though it was still deafening around them, Hatter heard her.

"I've got you, Alice. Remember?" He gave a laugh that bordered on nervous hysteria. "I told you I'd take care of you if you were stuck in Wonderland."

She nodded but she could feel their combined sweat starting to cause her hand to slip from his. The men behind Hatter were gripped his legs but they couldn't pull their weight up as Alice began to slip further from his grip. She felt like some heavy weight was attached to her boots and was dragging her down and even when she strained her shoulders to try to lift she couldn't manage to move any further. Hatter's hands tightened painfully around her wrists and he shook his head, his hat brushing her cheek as it fell into the darkness below. Alice's eyes met his, the sudden darkness in his expression telling her how terrified he was.

"Just hold on," Hatter whispered desperately and felt her nails dig into his skin so deeply that blood began to run from the tiny crescent marks. Alice looked over his shoulder and saw that the flooring was nearly gone below him. It was going to fall with or without their weight.

Without warning, the men behind Hatter gave a sudden hard pull that nearly dislodged his grip on her hands. "We've got to move!" one shouted down even as he slipped on the tile. Hatter shook his head, determined to keep Alice in his hold but the jolting action combined with their sweat made her one wrist slip from his fingers. She fell, her right hand dragging from his left, until it was only the fingers of his right hand gripping hers own fingers. She dangled, hanging like a rag-doll that that been shaken too many times, and she couldn't find the strength to lift her one hand to his again.

"Alice!" Hatter shouted, trying hard to grab at her more securely but failing as the tiles crumbled further. Strangely, she didn't scream nor cry out in wordless terror; it felt like something had stopped all sound from escaping from her. Instead, her blue eyes shone with tears while she stared up at him and though her lips trembled she gave him a smile, as if she was trying to comfort him.

"I love you," she whispered as her fingers finally slipped from his. He reached out to try to catch her wrist again but she was already plummeting down, her clothing fluttering around her while her hair whipped before her face.

As Alice fell into the darkness, she heard Hatter screaming her name above her with a raw desperation she had never heard before and she shut her eyes against the sight of him being pulled back to safety. _He would be safe_ , she thought in a moment of weary clarity before fear swamped her instinctively. Her heart was beating painfully hard in her chest, the pounding sound so loud that it drowned out the sounds from above. As the darkness blanketed her, she curled her hands around her abdomen protectively and tried to curl herself into a ball. She continued to fall, and soon welcomed the unconsciousness that overwhelmed her terrified mind, knowing that it was going to end soon.

 


	22. Rabbit Holes and Upsets

_She was falling, endlessly falling, into an open space that smelled too richly of must and cinnamon. Strangely, it felt like she was sinking into a thick swamp of mud and water and not plummeting down. There was no speed to her fall and the semi-suspension allowed her to finally come to her senses, the lack of impact finally registering in her brain as it began to process her situation slowly. With a groggy groan, Alice opened her eyes to a blur of lights and shapes just out of reach and her hair whipped around her face painfully hard, creating a dark drape that made it harder for her to see. Even with her poor vision, it took her only seconds to register that this was a not natural descent; but for her to shake that disorientated feeling took a little longer. She inhaled deeply, promptly choking on the heavy moist air, and forced herself to try to breathe normally so that she didn't pass out._

_Finally, Alice managed to open her eyes and focus on the darkness around her. Furious instinct went racing through her to scream and panic, but she found her breath knocked from her chest again as the wind carrying her gave a sudden jolt up and back. It was like being flung back and forth on a gigantic swing and she felt her head being forced back at the force of gravity. Then the feeling was gone, the heaviness pulling at her suddenly releasing. Still falling, she was moving as if in slow motion with her arms and legs flailing just as slowly at the wind whipping around her. It stung at her face and eyes and she closed her eyes halfway to block the pain of it. Lights shone and finally revealed just where she was falling._

_She was dropping down a narrow hole, at a rate of speed that felt slower and slower the further she fell. All around her objects were twisting in the air and some were even falling up instead of down, creating an odd contradiction to the way she was being pulled. Then, suddenly, Alice's fall seemed to become more suspended and, using the change in speed to her advantage, she did a somersault in the air to try to look around. It took her some effort to twist right side up and she narrowly dodged a tea tray that went flying past her head the moment she managed to correct herself._

_The clattering old tea tray swung in an arc around her as if orbiting her body. Alice reached over and steadied the tray so that it rested beside her, and wondered why a tea tray would be in a rabbit hold. The lid of the striped ceramic teapot lifted and a tiny bat poked its ugly head up from inside, sniffing at the air before squeaking at her._

_"Twinkle twinkle, little bat," boomed a robotic voice trimmed with a grating accent. It echoed in her ear and Alice turned her head to see a ceramic rabbit head floating next to her. It twisted around so that its blank white eyes faced her but though there was no expression on its face, Alice had the impression that it was staring at her mockingly. "How I wonder what..."_

_Before it could finish, Alice reached out and slapped the head away from her. It was still speaking as it spun in the air and the voice broke off as it crashed into the misty walls around the tunnel hole. It shattered at the impact but no ceramic shards flew out; it simply disintegrated into white dust. She turned away and went to shift mid-air to avoid being struck again by another flying object._

_A grandfather clock was falling up quickly by her, bonging away loudly and in a broken rhythm. She glanced at the face of the clock and saw that the pair of black hands had struck six o-clock. The glass was cracked though and the hands weren't moving at all, though the clock still made ticking noises in between the loud, impatient bongs. She reached out to try to turn the larger hand but it was stuck, the time permanently fixed at six. Frowning, she tried harder, not sure why it was so necessary to try to turn the time but it had become her focus in a way in a way that was strangely fixated for her._

_Despite her hold on the hands, the clock seemed to slip from her grasp and was pulled by some force up past her. Alice tipped her head back to watch it spin in furious circles up the hole, still bonging away impatiently as it faded from view. "Curiouser and curiouser," she couldn't help but say, the words almost feeling pulled from her lips. It felt like someone else was using her lips to speak and she swiped her hand over her mouth in reflex._

_The fading clamour of the clock above her was suddenly accompanied by the soft sound of a piano playing nearby. Checking to her left, Alice saw that imbedded in the dirt walls was a baby grand piano, surrounded by pieces of a checkerboard floor with only its keys and board showing. The keys were moving on their own without a player, the melody strangely familiar and she tried to swim through the air towards the piano. For some reason, she felt like she needed to touch it and knew that if she did so somehow this strange fall might make sense. Reaching out, she wrapped her fingers around the edge of the piano face and pulled herself closer. The melody became louder and more insistent the closer she came and she realized why it seemed so familiar._

_It was the same sort of song Hatter would hum sometimes, in his moments of either introspection or mindlessness and once or twice when he had been trying to lull her to sleep. Where before she had thought it was just a silly ditty, now she recognized it as a lullaby of sorts, with a distinctive pattern to its melody. It was meant to calm the spirit and body, but Alice found it almost painful to hear now that all she had was a memory to plague her of Hatter's touch and voice._

_"Oh Hatter," she whispered and she suddenly felt so lost without him to help guide her. He had always been her to guide her; even for those few moments in the Taiga when she had felt lost, it had never felt like he had left her. But now she had no one to depend on in this strangeness, and her mind was too panicked and rushed to try to think if Hatter had ever told her about a place like this._

_**Where was she falling? Why wasn't she dead or at least so badly injured that she wanted to die?** _

_**Or was she dead? Was that possible? Had her fall been to her death?** _

_Her body did a sudden drop in the air, like a bowling ball tossed over the edge of a roof, and Alice screamed at the suddenness of it. It was like falling through a whirlwind, her body being slammed back and forth against passing bookcases and old beds and she curled her arms around her belly to protect herself, trying to form a small ball. Her head cracked against the edge of a desk and she spun, reeling with pain, until one leg caught on an armchair floating by and stalled the force of her fall. Hanging upside down only made the throbbing pain in her head worse, but for a brief moment she was caught from falling further. Taking several shaky breaths in to try to ease the agony in her head, she stayed there and began to feel the insistent pull of gravity trying to keep her in its snare._

_A stupid, inane saying went through her head over and over, impatiently pushing at her until she finally blurted it out, "I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?"_

_That irritating robotic voice from hissed out from high above, "Do you know what either are?"_

_Alice would have answered but her boot suddenly slipped free from the chair leg and she started to fall again. She somersaulted in the air with her hair whipping back and forth to blur her vision again, and this time it was like before. The same slow fall that made her feel like she was being dragged through quicksand. The suspension that dragged her down made it more of a prolonged descent and for some reason it was more terrifying now that she had seen where she was falling. The voice above her was repeating itself and seemed to be joined in perfect unison with the melody of the insistent piano. She couldn't hear what the robotic voice was saying before its garbled words began to multiply and changed to be carried by different voices in different languages. Languages that sounded familiar though she was sure that she had never heard them before. It frightened her, confused her, and she pressed her hands to her head. Her fingers dug into her hair and she shook her head back and forth to try to stop the noise._

_"Stop," Alice whimpered. "Oh please stop."_

_The multiple voices began to echo more insistently against the narrow walls of the hole, and gradually the words become clearer to her. They were spouting strange rhymes and nonsense phrases, with some being shouted as if to catch her attention. Alice continued to beg for it to stop, desperate for a moment's peace though it seemed unlikely with the way the voices rang out. It was like hearing someone shouting just beside her ear and she clamped her hands over her ears._

_"Do cats eat bats?" A voice next to her seemed to pause, waiting for an answer before asking again,"Do cats_ _**eat** _ _bats?"_

_"Do bats eat cats? Shouldn't they? Wouldn't they?" another voice, more monotone and frightening because of it, demanded beside her other ear._

_"So they should!" The first voice agreed and Alice squeezed her eyes tightly shut, shaking her head back and forth. She pulled hard on her hair and tried to wish the voices away._

_"Alice..." a different, gentler voice whispered near her and she opened her eyes again, only to catch her own reflection in a mirror that was falling beside her. It was on level with her face and she squinted, the sight of herself almost seeming foreign in this place. She was bleeding from a cut on her forehead but the rest of her seemed to be covered in a silver lining which moved so fluidly with her that it was almost part of her skin. Her body was glowing with a paler light and she slowly released her head from her grip to take a better look._

_The mirror's face began to ripple like the surface of a disturbed pond and her face distorted along with it. Her features sharpened and pulled back, as if someone had taken a knife to cut away the soft edges of her own face and remoulded them to form someone different. The skin continued to pale until it was almost grey and the hair shortened and became silver. Gradually, the changes became more familiar and Alice stared at the woman she had seen in the Shop and in Hatter's reflections. She stared back at Alice and then shook her head._

_"So necessary yet so unnecessary," the woman said, her voice sounding muffled and tinny through the mirror. Though she wore an expression of utter sadness, a look that gave her a strange beauty, her green eyes seemed to gleam unnaturally. "Such things were risked for you, Alice, but now a slice of separation is about to happen to you. Prepared you may be but in the end, you will need to see what I need you to see."_

_Her odd rhyming sent a fresh stab of pain through Alice's head and she shut her eyes._

_"Oh that won't do you much good. You're about to land and it may be on a pile of wood. Poor choice of a place to fall here, but at least you'll be safe when I need you, dear," the woman's voice admonished even as Alice fell away from the mirror. At the woman's parting words, Alice opened her eyes again and looked down, no longer seeing the surrounding walls or strange objects flying up at her, only a darkness that absorbed any light. Her throat clenched as the slow descent began to accelerate once again, dragging her down before she could think to grab hold of anything to try to stop herself._

_It chilled her to realize that she was about to fall into such complete darkness again, that this place might become even worse. It stole her hope that she could reach for safety and Alice simply threw her hands over her head to make her descent faster. Some morbid belief made her think that the quicker she fell the sooner this would be over._

_"I'm sorry," she whispered, the air whipping around her beginning to choke the words from her and she wasn't sure who she was apologizing to. Hatter, her mother, Charlie, or her unborn child... all mattered and she knew that giving up was not what she should do. But in such a place devoid of any hope of escape, what else could she do?_

_The darkness started to envelope her like a blanket and she looked up for one last time to try to focus on the light of the hole she had been falling through. She saw the rabbit head floating above her once again just before the light disappeared and with it went the hole she had been falling through. She began to repeat her apologetic words like a litany to block her own fear of what was about to happen, though her body was preparing itself to land by tensing up. Resisting the urge to scream, she lowered her hands to her head again and managed to curl herself into the fetal position to try to soften her coming impact._

_**"I'm sorry, Hatter..."** _

 

* * *

 

"I'm...sorry..."

"Alice. It's time to wake up..."

She woke slowly, the way she might have woken from a comfortable nap, and realized that she must have landed. _But where?_ With a loud cry, she rocketed upright and immediately a pair of gentle hands were pushing back against her. Try as she might to resist the hold, she was pushed onto her back and forced to stay there. She was too tired to fight and her body slackened, unable to resist the firm hands on her body.

It wasn't a harsh grip though and gradually she began to realize that she was lying on a bed and not the ground. The hands holding her were not cruel and she didn't feel like she was in any pain. A warm hand lifted and caressed her cheek before checking her forehead's temperature. For a minute the touch felt like it had a phantom familiarity to it and she relaxed. Of course this all have been some strange dream; perhaps she had just fallen and hit her head in the Channels.

"Hatter?" she whispered and opened her eyes, hoping to see him above her and ready to scold her for taking such a tumble. It would be like him to both scold her and be concerned about her, and with a sudden strong hope, she strained to focus on the person hovering over her.

The blurred face staring back at her seemed just as familiar as his and she started, almost ready to sit up but the hold returned to keep her down. Light swam in from a nearby window and bathed her face, hurting her eyes and keeping her from being able to focus on anything but the shadowy pair of faces above her. It made her eyes ache to be in the light after being almost suffocated in darkness, and she had to squint to try to see clearly.

"You need to try to focus, Alice."

"Don't hurry her."

"She's been asleep for too long, she needs to wake up."

"Take a fall like that and you'd likely to want to sleep as well," someone said to her left and Alice turned her head, bleary eyes finally focussing to recognize the tall thin man leaning over her.

"Pidge?" she whispered and he reached out, giving her hand a squeeze.

"Well, morning to you as well, Miss. Hamilton," he commented, his accented voice tinged with relief and concern. Groaning, she started to push herself up and he grabbed hold of her arms to help her move against the pillows. Once she was reclining against the headboard, he let her go and gave her an almost sheepish smile. "We've been waiting for you to wake up. Kept us waitin' long enough, you did."

Alice went to answer when a movement caught her eye. She almost choked on a sob when she saw that the other person holding her hand was her mother, staring back at her with eyes brimming with tears. The expression in Carol's eyes was disbelieving yet ecstatic and Alice knew that her own expression likely reflected the same emotions.

"Mom," she whispered, the word coming out hoarse and rough. Holding her arms out, even she wasn't prepared for the suddenness of her mother's embrace nor how tight she was held. It was like being held by a warm vice and it felt both protective and loving, letting her know that this might actually be real. After such a strange journey to try to find her, Alice was finally holding her mother but she was not about to let her go right away to make sure this was real.

Carol cried freely against Alice's hair, holding her daughter tighter and tighter until she could hold her no tighter. Alice managed to hold back some of her tears, a habit learned from her time in Wonderland, though she couldn't help but let a few sniffles escape her. When she peeped at Pidge, she saw that he was looking quite uncomfortable at their open display of emotion. With a teary smile, she simply hugged her mom tighter and felt her hair being stroked in return. It was a strange feeling for her to be actually holding her mother after her harrowing weeks in trying to find her and now to find her safe allowed for a deep sense of relief to flood her.

"I was so worried about you," she said softly when they broke apart and Carol gave her a watery smile, wiping her hand over her eyes to rid them of tears.

"I was just as worried about you, Alice. When that mirror exploded, I thought you'd be hurt or..." Carol waved her hand, stopping herself. "No, that's in the past. I'm just... so happy you're awake now! I found Wonderland hard enough to believe, even with Charlie helping me, but now that you're here maybe you can make this world make more sense to me."

Alice felt her mother's tight grip on her hand and squeezed back. She looked long and hard at Carol and noticed that she was dressed quite differently than normal. Gone was the usual urban chic her mother tended to strive for, with her high boots, pants and blouses. Carol was wearing a purple dress with a high empire waist and lacing sewn throughout, like a dress worn in a period film, and her face, though a bit thinner and paler, actually seemed to glow with happiness at seeing her only child awake. "I didn't mean to worry you," Alice stated and, wanting to change the subject away from something that was still too fresh a wound, she picked at Carol's short sleeve. "This is... different for you."

"Traditional Wonderland get-up, I suppose," Carol said, glancing at Pidge.

"Women. Discussing clothing at a time like this," he muttered and got equally reproachful looks from both women. He cleared his throat and looked the other way while Alice shook her head. She had glanced at her own body and noticed the simple night-gown she was wearing. It wasn't her own.

"Not really. Anything I saw in the City was like something from the forties in our world," she answered but broke off as a faint glimmer caught her attention. Now that she knew who was holding her and that she was likely safe, she took in the entire room. It was massive, like one of Jack's own rooms at the Palace, with fine mahogany baseboards running along white stucco walls and several mirrors shining around the room. It was luxurious, she could tell from the plush carpets on the floor and the expensive-looking furniture that decorated the space. Its contrast to the open modern art-deco style of the Heart Palace was so stark that she was actually confused by it. The richness of the room was almost antique in its design and she glanced down at the deep-blue velvet comforter covering her legs.

"Where are we?" she asked just before she began to cough. Pidge got up and went over to a sideboard near the large bed, pouring her a glass of water.

"We're safe," he said over his shoulder and Alice looked at Carol inquiringly. Her mother looked uncomfortable.

"What happened? Why... how did they find you? I mean, I saw you fall and then I couldn't hold on to Hatter..." she broke off. Her mind was finally catching up with details she seemed to have been forgetting in the haze of her sleep. She whipped the bedspread to the side at the staggering thought that she had forgotten something far more important than her current location. What in Wonderland was she thinking?

"Oh god, Hatter!"

Pidge was back at the bed before she could leap from it like she planned and with Carol he struggled to hold her still. The panic she was feeling seemed to be giving her a second wind and he noticed the glow to her skin starting to increase with each second of her heightened emotions. She was babbling, insisting on finding Hatter and with each time she spoke his name she seemed to grow strong, as if she had hidden reserves of strength. It made holding her difficult and Pidge saw that the faint gryphon mark on her neck was starting to glow as well. A poor sign and he glanced at Carol, seeing her confusion though she was helping him hold her daughter.

"Alice! Calm down!" He shook her just before she gave him a good whack for holding her and he narrowly dodged her elbow in his stomach. Keeping his grip on her shoulders, he gave her a firm shake. "Alice, stop! This isn't good for you! You have to think of your baby!"

His words penetrated the desperate panic that had overwhelmed her and she froze, staring at him. Pidge simply stared back at her, watching as she visibly deflated and sagged against her mother. His eyes went involuntarily to her rounded stomach but she didn't seem to notice. She didn't seem willing to fight anymore and Pidge was relieved that he didn't have to try to hold her down still.

Alice felt Carol's arms going around her and she sucked in a deep breath to calm her nerves. Her mother's hand patted her stomach and she noticed that Carol didn't seem to be shocked by Pidge's words. "You know..." she started and felt her mother chuckle.

"Honey, it is rather hard to miss. Considering how well I know you and I know how you looked when I saw you at the Looking Glass." She pulled back a bit and glanced down meaningfully. Alice followed her eyes and gasped, one hand flying to her stomach. Her belly, while it had been just slightly rounded before, had now filled out more; it rounded out in the slim-fitting night-gown she wore. Knowing her own body as well as she did, and with Carol knowing how in shape Alice kept herself, made it more noticeable to both of them. Before she had been able to wear her other clothing and been able to hide the signs of it but now it was obvious when wearing something tighter. She let her fingers drift over her stomach and felt a tiny flutter, as if her stomach was doing flip-flops, course through her womb. Certain she had been imagining things, she frowned and stared down at her stomach.

"What in Wonderland happened?" Alice whispered to herself, one hand still tightly pressed against her belly. It stabilized her to feel her bump and she looked up at Pidge, who had moved away to sit on the edge of the bed.

"We're safe, Alice. Luckily, I might add."

Alice's mind flashed to the Changing Hall, to the crumbling floors that had trapped them all, to Arthur, Chesh and then Pidge plummeting into darkness. The flashes lingered on Hatter trying to hold her from falling and on the look in his eyes as she slipped from his hands. Alice shivered and rubbed at her shoulder, suddenly feeling colder inside than she had before. When she looked up Carol was watching her with open concern.

Pidge continued, not seeming to notice the shift in Alice's emotions, "We're at the home of my aunt. One of my last living relatives, I might add, and lucky we found her."

"How, Pidge? When we fell... I thought that to fall meant death," Alice pointed out and he winced.

"Sort of the dominant belief that is kept. I wasn't one hundred percent sure myself about where it led. The floors shift, and so does the darkness. Leads to a mess of physics that I can't explain but..." He looked up. "To say the least, we fell down the rabbit hole and luckily landed on our feet. We're in the South Forests, deep south and that is miles and miles away from the Channels."

"And apparently in a heritage house?" she asked sarcastically, giving the room a meaningful look, and Pidge glared at her.

"We are in the Drawling Manor, Alice." The way he said it made it sound as if she had insulted him by calling it just a house.

She gave him a blank look and at his exasperated sigh, Pidge looked at her mother. Carol rolled her eyes, deciding to take over for him. "Charlie and I were taken by some shadow group, I've been told. They were going to use us... me, to build some sort of conduit..." She relayed the story quickly, clearly skipping over some parts for Alice's benefit, and when she came towards the end she seemed uncomfortable remembering it. "We were saved, oddly enough, by the people they were trying to get hold of. Lady Caryn Drawling and her father..."

Alice started. "I met a Caryn Drawling in the Port Town."

"She remembered you well and she was why I knew you were safe," Carol admitted.

"I get how you would be brought here if they saved you," Alice agreed but she looked at Pidge, "but I don't get how we're here. Where are the others? Hatter is going to be worried..."

He suddenly looked edgy and she had the impression she had brought up a subject he didn't want to think about.

"When we fell through the rabbit hole, I landed on top of Arthur at the very bottom. He's fine by the way, remarkably uninjured considering how hard we all landed. By the time I came to, you were falling through finally and I managed to..catch you."

"Not that I'm doubting you," she interrupted, "but I'm not feather-light."

"You had some help in that way. You were glowing as you fell, the same sort of glow you had when you were almost stabbed on the paths," he explained. Carol gasped and her eyes whipped back to Alice.

"You what?"

"It's nothing, Mom. I'm ok." Mostly, she thought to herself; the thought that she had killed someone still didn't sit easily. "That explains why I felt warm when I saw everything flying by me. I guess I had been hallucinating..."

"Wait, you saw things as you fell?" Pidge asked, clearly confused when she nodded. "That's... unusual."

"This whole escapade has been unusual, Pidge. Right from the start of it," Alice jibed but instead of his usual playfulness he suddenly looked fierce and genuinely angry with her.

"Of course," Pidge scolded. "Things would have gone much differently if you had been honest about your little bundle there from the very start with Hatter."

He gave her belly a pointed look and Alice felt a fresh flood of guilt and shame. Her own doubts about the pregnancy, about telling Hatter, suddenly seemed so stupid and Pidge's accusation brought on a fresh pang of self-doubt. Seeing the tears brimming in her eyes, Carol reached across and cuffed Pidge on his shoulder. "Stop that. There's no use in bothering her about maybes or what could have. I'm just delighted she's going to make me a grandmother."

Pidge made a face. "That's not what I meant. Do you realize how terrified I was when she looked ready to..."

He shut his mouth with a snap but Alice had heard enough and she grabbed at his hand. With an exaggerated wince, Pidge sighed and held her hand gently. "The way you fell was hard. When I managed to get you up on Arthur, you were screaming. You... well, it almost seemed like you may lose your baby. I almost thought you had and you might have if your glow hadn't cushioned things a bit when you landed. Those were moments I would rather not remember. I can deal with regular battle wounds but not with a pregnant woman about to lose my friend's kid."

She almost fell back against the pillows in relief. "Don't do that, Pidge."

He shrugged. "I was concerned, s'all. Forefront of my mind was that if anything happened to you, Hatter would kill me."

Alice didn't miss how Carol made several gestures to try to keep Pidge quiet and she sighed, rubbing at her stomach in an apologetic circle. Swinging her feet to the side of the bed, she made her way to her feet and waited patiently for her body to steady itself.

"Ok. So let me catch up here. We're in the Deep South because the floors that were disappearing led to a darkness, which led to a rabbit hole," she broke off and glanced at Pidge who nodded. Alice took a few shuffling steps over to the side board and picked up a glass of water. She took a long sip and then wiped at her mouth. "Mom and Charlie are safe because they were rescued by someone who betrayed someone else. We're safe because of your aunt, Pidge, taking us in. That's were I'm stuck."

Pidge gestured around them. "This is her father's house. The Drawling Master is notoriously not happy about visitors."

"How'd we get here?"

"Well, when you landed and you were screaming somethin' fierce, was when your little friend you were hiding came into sight." He glanced at a door. "The cat..."

"Chesh. He was acting as a back-up guide," Alice offered and Pidge shrugged. Those were details he didn't think of as important right now.

"So he claimed. He was also the one that told me you were pregnant, since you were screaming and crying so much. You were too incoherent to tell me yourself. Since he helped me, I let him live but they insist on him being kept locked up." Pidge gestured to Alice's belly and her own hand went over it again. "You were clearly in pain, even though your glow softened your landing. So I managed to get Arthur up on his feet and he carried us out of the bottom of the rabbit hole into the South region. Spent a couple of days just wandering, but you never woke up, not once. I left you as you were, sleepin', until we were found by a few guardsmen of my aunt just outside the estate. We're lucky we fell where we did but now we've got more problems being in the Deep South."

Alice absorbed it thoughtfully. So that whole trip down the 'rabbit hole' had been nothing but a hallucination? It had seemed so real and her head still felt achy from where she had struck it. She turned slowly on her heel. "But we're only out a few days. We can find a way back to Hatter and maybe back to the City now that Mom is safe. We can help..."

She caught the confused look Carol gave her and frowned at her mother. Pidge and Carol looked at one another in strange unison before Carol looked at Alice again.

"Sweetheart, how long do you think you were out for?" she asked.

Alice pressed the heel of her hand against her forehead. "Ugh, does it really matter?" She made her way slowly back to them and sat back down. She noticed Pidge reaching into his pocket and fishing something out.

"It really does," Pidge muttered while holding a pocket watch out before her face. He dangled it before her eyes and she saw the hands on the watch face clicking away impatiently.

"That... really means nothing to be, seeing as how my vision is still blurry," she grumbled, slapping it away.

"Alice, according to this, you've been in a comatose state since... "He checked something on the watch. "Thursday."

Alice pulled a face and he held up his hand.

"Of last month."

She stared dumbly at him for a few seconds before glancing at Carol. "He can't be serious."

"You are further along, Alice, than you realize. I know you know that pregnant women just don't swell up like that." At Carol's words, Alice put her hand to her belly and felt the heavier weight resting there.

"Way I look at it... I think you used too much magic to protect yourself," Pidge said and Carol glared at him. He put his hands up in the air submissively. "I ain't saying that's a bad thing. It saved your little one and you but it exhausted you."

"I've been tired from using it before," Alice muttered and Pidge leaned closer.

"But Alice, you didn't use it like that before," he whispered knowingly and she looked away from him.

Though she didn't understand about Alice's 'glow', Carol gave her a sympathetic look. "Honey, we've waited a month to have you back."

The door nearest to the sideboard suddenly opened and they all turned in unison to stare at the woman who slipped through. "Now that you're awake," Lady Caryn said by way of greeting, folding her arms across her chest, "we have to decide what to do with you all."

 


	23. North Abel

Caryn only moved a few strides into the room before she was shoved hard to the side by a blustering Charlie. He was just so focussed on Alice that he didn't seem to notice Caryn standing in his way and the thin woman had to catch her on the door. Charlie glanced at her but he was only really caring that Alice was awake. With his choppy, awkward gait and his puffy white linen clothing, he almost resembled a white crab moving lop-sided through the short distance between door and where the rest of them sat. Behind him, Caryn picked herself up with as much dignity as she could muster before resuming her slow, steady pace into the room. Now that everyone's attention was drawn away, she was able to take in the mood of the room easier and she wasn't sure she liked what she saw.

At the sight of Charlie's lurching form, Alice forgot to pay attention to Lady Drawling and couldn't help but laugh when Charlie beamed at her with almost wild eyes.

"Charlie!"

"Justalice, I knew we would be reunited! The heavenly cosmos have joined our lives since we first met and our fates remain intertwined, no matter the distance!" he declared and Pidge helped Alice up from the bed again so that she could stand on her own. Charlie gave Carol a friendly pat on her shoulder as he passed but his attention was on Alice and the grin he gave was maniacally happy. "I was truly worried that your injuries may have struck you to eternal sleep. If that was the case, I was prepared to travel to the furthest reaches of Wonderland to concoct a potion with which to bring you from your sleep."

"While I appreciate the thought, Charlie, I'm okay, really," Alice said, holding her hands out to the side as if to show him she wasn't lying. There was no stopping the White Knight when he wanted to expound on his own virtues though.

"I knew that my long meditations into the mesmeric outer-worlds, into the mists of time and through the intangible web of reality, would allow me to see the moment you would return to us, Alice of Legend! And here you are! Returned to us and not a moment too soon!" Charlie declared, taking her hands in his. She smiled up at him and he immediately wrapped her in a bone crushing hug, his bony frame almost seeming to dig into her skin.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Charlie," Alice whispered and she felt his grip tighten a bit, one hand patting her back awkwardly.

"I guarded your fair mother as best I could, Alice," he said before he pulled back. "There were times when I thought we may not see you again."

"Me too, but here I am. Same old me as always," Alice said with a wry grin that didn't meet her eyes.

"Indeed," Charlie said and he glanced down. The slim-fitting night-gown Alice wore made her pregnancy obvious and he poked gently at her belly. Alice watched his expressive face and, since Charlie was silent, she did a few mental calculations. She certainly seemed a bit bigger than she had anticipated to be at four and a half months and by Charlie's expression, she was certainly not imagining it. He had the look of someone who had seen something that both interested and worried him. He caught her staring at him and cleared his throat. "And there is more than just you, isn't there?"

Alice smiled. "It is... hard to believe."

Charlie shrugged. "Perhaps for you. I, on the other hand, had an inkling that there was something new and fantastical about you, Alice, the moment your new villein, Pidge, brought you to the Drawling Manor. I have a sixth sense about these things you know."

"Villein?" The younger man sounded offended but that he might have insulted Pidge went clean over Charlie's head. Pidge gave a frustrated groan and leaned against the wall closest to Alice's bed. "Does he always talk like this or is this a new thing for him? That I haven't given into the urge to kill him yet is something new for me."

Alice looped her arm through Charlie's and didn't answer. Instead, she looked at the White Knight. "Thank you, Charlie, for keeping my mom safe."

"She didn't make it particularly easy at times," Charlie admitted and Carol gasped, her eyes flashing. Alice bit her inner cheek to keep from smiling.

"Excuse me but who was planning escape routes while we were dragged South? Escape routes that always failed?" she pointed out and the Knight actually looked offended.

"Merely a diversion tactic that would have resulted in..." he began and finally the woman near the end of the bed spoke up.

"Resulted in something none of us want to think on." Caryn Drawling stood with her arms crossed over her chest and her head tipped on one side. She was dressed in an old style compared to the more modern clothing Alice often saw in Wonderland, the green silk dress rustling around her ankles as she swayed slightly from heel to heel. It was if she had so much energy that she couldn't keep herself still if she tried. Alice, watching her, almost felt tired just watching in those few seconds and wondered if this was some sort of nervous tic. Not noticing Alice's curious look, Caryn's amber brown eyes were instead fixated on Carol. "You should show your daughter the results of you being captured."

Alice looked over at her mother, wanting to question the new arrival but Caryn's words had spiked her interest. Carol exhaled sharply before she sat on the bed and kicked off her slippers. Her feet were bare on the thick green carpet but they seemed normal to Alice's confused eyes. Realizing that Alice didn't understand, Carol raised one foot and showed her the very tip of her toes, no longer a normal healthy pink but a mixture of black and grey. Even her toenails were grey; the way a foot might look after frostbite.

"What happened?" Alice asked, stooping over to check more closely. Carol opened her mouth to answer but with a swish of silk, Lady Drawling was beside Alice, her head still held on the side as she looked over Carol's foot.

"She accidentally dipped it into a conduit vat. That was something that couldn't be avoided but it did cause quite a few problems, as I have no doubt you'll see in a matter of time. But perhaps other things have contributed to them and your mother's unfortunate... 'dipping' is coincidence." She saw Alice's concern and shook her head. "It looks worse than it is."

"It's nothing painful or numb," Carol added, wiggling her toes for Alice to see. "Just colouring."

"Nothing is really wrong with your mother, despite the discolouring of her toes. Relax, Alice," Caryn encouraged soothingly.

There was an almost condescending note in her tone and her words made the girl bristle and whirl as quickly as she could. "No! I am tired of being told to relax or telling myself I should simply accept things the way they are. I am standing in a strange place, suddenly finding myself with my friends and my mom but losing the man I love up in the Channels I just fell through. Which is place that is likely miles away, knowing Wonderland. All after plummeting down a rabbit hole in a weird effort to try to save my mom and Charlie and meanwhile, my friends in the City are either in danger or dead. Added to that is my being unconscious for a month and, oh, a little thing called pregnant and having no idea if my baby is actually healthy and safe after I fell that distance." Alice took a deep breath. Since her fast talking made her voice squeaky and high, she temporarily lost her breath. Inhaling deeply, she pressed her hand to her stomach. "Everything that's happened and you want me to relax?"

Caryn didn't flinch but her hands flexed at her sides. Alice leaned in close to her and her eyes went to blue ice.

"That has to be the stupidest thing I've heard since I woke up."

The room fell silent and tension became so thick that no one dared to move for several moments as the two women stared at one another. Deciding that the tension had gone on long enough, Pidge chuckled loudly and shook his head in amusement. The sound caused Caryn to turn her head and fix him with a furious look. "Alastair, let me remind you that you are under my hospitality."

His face lost its amused expression. "Right, aunt. Behave, I know, and that means no laughing at you." Once she turned around again, he couldn't help but grin. It was hard to hide that fact that he was enjoying Alice's lack of intimidation from the older woman. Caryn had an unnerving way about her that usually cowed other people but apparently Alice had already had enough of not being in control.

Caryn turned her attention back to Alice, not seeing her nephew's continued amusement at her expense. She clasped her hands before herself and eyed Alice. "So Pidge wasn't lying after all. You were travelling with the Snake and the Hatter and survived the fall from the Changing Hall intact, as he said you would." Her eyes lingered on Alice's stomach in a preoccupied way. "Perhaps more than any of us realize."

"How did you find my mom and Charlie?" Alice demanded, ignoring the comment on her pregnancy.

"Resources," Caryn said. "It helps to be connected, whether the sources are legal or not."

The way she phrased it made Alice take a closer look at the woman, not sure what to think though she knew she should be grateful to her. There was a familiarity there between them that she hadn't anticipated or remembered; Caryn's manner was almost cool and yet familiar. The way she spoke felt like Alice had known her for a little longer than just a passing acquaintance. As if she was someone she had known for longer or someone she had heard something of before. But wracking her brain quickly, Alice couldn't honestly think she had heard anything of a Caryn Drawling before.

Aware that she was being stared at, Alice quickly blurted out, "What sources?"

"My own and my father's. He may be older, but he is quite... knowledgeable." Caryn waved her hand impatiently. "We saved your mother and the White Knight as they had been pulled into something that they should not belong to. None of this should have happened. We would have acted sooner but it wasn't until I met you, Alice, that I realized how far things had gone."

She held out a hand. "And how I needed to make sure my sources were in place to keep you safe. I would have us be friends."

Alice stared at the hand she was offered but couldn't bring herself to take it. Instead, she folded her arms across her chest and brushed past the woman to look out the large wall to wall windows. Outside the sky was red and orange from the sunset, and the brightness allowed her to see the massive house she was in. From what she could see, it was well built with old stone and designed in a grand way that made her think of an old Regency-era movie. The lawns were well manicured and obviously tended to, a long driveway lined with shrubs. The lawns and shrubs appeared to be so extensive that they ran for a mile or so until the woods in the distance met them at a high iron fence. Lingering around the edge of the grounds was a thick fog that was so dense she couldn't actually see anything but a few trees.

Alice turned her head. "How far south are we?" she asked.

"I would wager, by my calculations, we are approximately three weeks away from Port Town," Charlie offered as he took a seat beside Carol and near Alice, Caryn shrugged.

"Fair enough estimation. Depends on which way you were to leave. A few hundred miles or so south of us is the Wasteland Deserts, while to the East is the Thoroughfare Waters."

"Only three weeks. So I could find Hatter," Alice murmured, so low that she thought no one could hear her but Caryn cleared her throat.

"I think we need you to be brought up to the gravity of Wonderland's situation, Alice. If you'll follow me, I can take you to someone who might explain why..." She paused and reached up to tug on the necklace she wore, her fingers twisting around the charms nervously. "It may not be possible yet for you to leave."

As if that was all Alice needed to know, the older woman left with little more than a polite nod to Carol and Charlie. Pidge got out of her way but he never once broke his gaze from Alice's face while he picked up a thick flannel dressing gown from the bedside table. She had turned to look back out the window, her brow furrowed deeply as if she was trying to see something in the distance. After a moment's hesitation, he approached her and put his hand on her shoulder. His grip tightened when he felt how cold her skin was and how lacklustre her glow had become.

"Alice," he began and she turned to look at him from the corner of her eye. He held out the thick flannel to her and she took it after a hesitation. "Caryn isn't lying to you. This isn't as simple as just distance between you and Hatter. That is small fish in this barrel compared to what has happened to Wonderland and to everyone in it." Belting the robe, Alice lifted her head to frown at him and he nodded to the door. "We'll go with you though. I wouldn't suggest going through this house alone."

She gave him a look as she slipped her feet into a pair of slippers that had been put by her bed. "That doesn't make me feel any better."

Pidge merely smiled indifferently. "Wasn't meant to."

* * *

Alice was struck by the similarities between the Drawling Manor and the White Manor in the Taiga. Where the White Manor had been stark white and almost decaying despite its interior beauty, this place was lived in, decorated in warm colours and radiating a peaceful aura that was rare in Wonderland. In a strange way, it reminded Alice of Hatter's home if only because it made her feel protected to be here. The Drawling Manor appeared to be massive but almost every room was bustling with people who stopped and stared at Alice and her friends curiously before carrying on with whatever they were doing. Caryn merely told her that they were people who were nearby residents and that they had come to live at the Manor for safety reasons. Alice could only look at her own mother questioningly but Carol had been strangely quiet about it.

Where Alice would have normally lingered to take in her surroundings, to see what she could learn about this place just by appearance, now she remained focussed. She didn't stop looking at the back of Caryn's head as she led them through a multitude of rooms and staircases and once or twice Caryn looked back at her curiously as if Alice's unwavering gaze bothered her. Caryn's attitude was nervous, as if she didn't like the idea of telling Alice anything more than the basics about this house, but she hid it well.

At the same time, Pidge's words had set Alice's nerves on edge for what might be coming.

With over a month asleep to the world, her abrupt awakening had left her feeling disorientated and prone to panic, and Alice took several deep breaths to calm herself. Her stomach gave a few flips in response, but it worked. She knew she had to focus and with some effort she managed to catch up to Caryn as they began to walk down a long corridor. The older woman glanced at her again. When Alice didn't say anything, she sighed and waited for Alice come beside her before she resumed her pace.

"You've no reason to be nervous. If we had wanted to kill you, it would have been done before you even set foot in the South," Caryn said and Alice arched a brow at her.

"You sound pretty sure of yourself."

Caryn shrugged. "Life here makes you good at watching out for possible problems. The Drawling family has long governed the South for the Hearts, though our association was... tense at best. We've had to learn the hard way about mistakes and broken promises... and the consequences of those."

With a faint smile, she put her hand on Alice's shoulder to draw her to a stop before a pair of glass doors and she tapped gently on one. Behind Alice, Carol and Charlie were both staring in some confusion at this new place. They had been given full run of the house during their time here but not once had they seen these doors before or the room they led to. Looking over Alice's shoulder, Carol thought that it reminded her of a city conservatory, with a thick cover of plants that made it hard to see much behind the glass doors. It was likely a garden inside but what kind of place could that hide further inside?

"By Phinneus, this place just keeps changing every day," Charlie muttered and Carol looked over her shoulder at him. "It is like the house keeps changing its rooms and adding to them. Hatter would enjoy this, I'm certain."

In front of Alice, Caryn made a small sound that could have been her agreement or her dismay at his odd astuteness.

"Your memory might be getting bad, Knight. You could have walked through here already and not known it," Pidge said as he leaned against the door frame on the other side of Caryn. His eyes were on his aunt's face though and he had noticed how distant she looked suddenly. The Aunt Caryn he had known, albeit vaguely through his younger years as his only surviving family beyond his grandfather, had always been cheery though reserved but in the past few weeks she had become more withdrawn and snappish when asked simple questions by Charlie or Carol as to the history of the Drawling Manor. Her distracted manner made Pidge wonder if she was reliving some piece of her closely guarded past in her mind and if something in that past was coming out now that Wonderland was in such trouble.

Pidge figured that she was up to something... though no one really knew what went through Lady Drawling's mind.

His aunt caught his eye and shook her head as if warning him to keep such thoughts out of his head. Running his hand through his hair, Pidge glanced at Alice and saw that she was staring down at her stomach. He had been personally stunned to find her pregnant when the Cheshire had revealed it to him. Stunned and maybe a little disappointed that Hatter's claim to her went that far... but he had always wanted things for the sake of just being contrary. His infatuation with Alice was just that, more built from admiration than any deeper feeling he figured. He knew that in a fight, when it really mattered and when Hatter was properly motivated, that he might not stand a chance against the younger man. However, it made him feel only a little better that even Alice seemed surprised by the small roundness to her belly after the past month.

This whole trip was full of surprises, and few of them were pleasant. Alice's pregnancy, he supposed, was one of the happier ones.

Caryn impatiently knocked again and shouted through the door, "Father! I am not about to make them all stand here for hours while you tinker away!"

The glass door clicked open as if on command. "Leave that irritating spy and the others outside. I want to speak to Alice without her friends around to cloud her judgment," a thick, old voice said from somewhere in the conservatory. Caryn went to step out of the way but his voice carried through to them, "However, you may come as well, Lady Drawling."

"Old bugger never could let me go do my own things that have a need to get done," she muttered and looked at Alice. "You'll be perfectly safe if that's what you're worried about. I think the last person my father attacked was when he was twenty. He's in his early seventies now, so you can well imagine how... less limber he is."

"I hope so," Alice muttered. Carol put her hand on Alice's arm to hold her still.

"Wait. Why does she need to go by herself?" she demanded of Caryn and the other woman shrugged.

"Who knows?" She reached out and touched Carol's shoulder. "But I'll keep her safe. I promise you that."

Her voice was so honest and there was something in her touch that seemed to relax Alice's mother. So much so that she visibly softened, releasing Alice's arm and moving out of the way. Shooting her a confused look, Alice went through the door and Caryn followed. She turned to shut the door and looked at Pidge.

"You can take them to the kitchens or library. We'll likely be with you shortly." She closed the door with a snap and disappeared with Alice into the thick gardens of the conservatory.

* * *

The conservatory was humid and filled with a thick earthy smell that reminded Alice of being in a dense forest. It was thick with plants and trees, several streams of light pouring in from high skylights. She paused to take it in, aware of Lady Drawling passing her and disappearing around a large tree that was the centre piece of the room, its massive branches seeming to hold up the high ceiling. Alice glanced behind where they had come from and saw that the glass doors had disappeared, only plants and flowers in the path now. As she watched, new flowers seemed to sprout up from the earth in the soft grass footprints she had left and she bent down to touch one. The bud of the flower opened at her touch, revealing a blue tulip, and Alice heard a faint whispering noise that seemed to come from the flower itself.

"Alice?" Caryn called out and she straightened.

"Coming," she answered, still staring at the flower. It withered almost as quickly as it had grown and more grass began to cover the dirt path. Dusting her hands off on the dressing gown, Alice turned around to see Caryn standing nearby, her arms crossed over her chest. Feeling like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar, she quickly moved past her around the tree. There were tiny insects that flew by her head and Alice turned to watch as a tiny horse-fly whinnied at her, tossing its equine head before whizzing around Caryn, the tiny wings fluttering around an equally small horse body. The older woman sighed, falling into step beside Alice to guide her through the gardens.

"Bugs. Be careful, horse-flies do have a habit of kicking."

Alice could not believe the variety in plants that were crowded into the conservatory. They were all colours and sizes, and there were a few vines moving like snakes amongst the trees. When one tightened around a tree's branch, Alice could have sworn she heard the tree bark.

Caryn didn't miss a beat. "Dogwood Tree. Rare flowers and trees are brought here to flourish, and then they are put back into the wild to populate the South Forests. Years ago, the Wars razed the Forests to nothing more than burnt earth. It has taken some magic and science to bring them back as thick as they are now. We are finally managing to recover Blue Tulips and White Lilies, which were extinct in most areas."

"It seems like a lot of effort," Alice said and Caryn shrugged.

"We owe it to Wonderland. I'd like to not think on the consequences of upsetting the Balance in Wonderland." Taking Alice by the elbow, she helped her walk over a puddle of water and then with another turn around yet another massive tree, they reached the North edge of the conservatory.

The conservatory ended almost abruptly, the earth floors giving way to a marble floors that looked like a checkerboard. A sudden, frightening memory of the Channels made Alice pause, seeing the floor crumbling in her panic. But Caryn breezed past her, her heels clacking on the floor, and flicked her fingers at a dragon-fly that went roaring by her nose. She turned impatiently, gesturing for Alice to follow her.

It gave her some confidence to see Caryn walking so calmly over the floor, and Alice put her foot out tentatively before sighing in relief when the floor didn't move under her slippers. Looking up, she saw that the conservatory had turned into an observatory: a large telescope, painted in faded colours, dominated the space with its body pointed halfway out an open window. Standing to one side of it was a tall, thin man bent at the waist, his black and green tweed clothing stark against the pristine white metal guards that covered the window and the glowing sunset outside.

"We've been waiting on you, Miss. Hamilton, for Wonderland knows how long," said the man bent over the telescope. It was pointed not at the sky but straight out, its considerable length very crooked and painted a faded green. The man cranked the side wheel and the telescope swivelled so that it pointed to the West, allowing Alice to see the faded checker insignia on the side. One she hadn't seen since her time in the Taiga and it made her instantly suspicious. Especially when she remembered the havoc that the White Queen had caused in her life a year ago.

"Are you all..." She turned on her heel and looked at Caryn quizzically. The woman stared back at her with equal interest. "I mean, I remember you saying you pretty much hated the White Queen but are you people who served the Reds a long time ago?"

Caryn gave an impolite sniff and the man near the telescope actually laughed.

"Hardly, lass. The last time I spoke to one of the Colours was... och, goin' on forty years ago. Never liked them much," the man said as he peered through the eyepiece. "'Tis just like them to pull some stupid nobility thing and destroy everything. Which they nearly did until they underestimated a family they once thought below themselves. For the most part, I stayed out of their way."

"Who are you?" Alice asked, eyes on the bent man. Putting his hand to the small of his back, he straightened himself with a groan. He smiled at her in a friendly way though and she stared at him, recognizing him but not knowing why. He reached into his pocket and fished out a red scarf, patting it over the eyepiece he had been staring through to clean it.

"Someone who has been waiting for you to wake up to let you see what's become of Wonderland thanks to your misguided attempts at rescue." Though the words were reproachful, there was no real malice in them.

"I know you..." Alice said, trying hard to place him and failing. It was when he came a few steps closer, resting his hand on the body of the telescope, and flashed her a white-toothed grin, that she was able to remember his craggy face. It had been dark then and he had been in shadow but there was no mistaking the scarf or the very white smile. "You were in Port Town. The lamplighter I helped."

"Visiting my daughter, aye. And helping out a sick friend. Though anyone would wonder why someone of my ranking would light lamps." His dark brown eyes went to Alice's face. "But I had been most interested in meeting you, ever since stories about you and the Hatter started trickling through the grapevine, so to speak. So that was merely happy coincidence."

"There's no such thing in Wonderland," she couldn't help but mutter. The man's dark eyebrows almost seemed to raise to his grey hair and he looked at his daughter, standing just behind Alice.

"She's not as stupid as we thought."

"And I'm not deaf, either." Alice crossed her arms over her chest. "And you haven't answered my question."

"I was called North Abel, at a strange point in my life, considering I've never left the South for long. Commonly, I'm the Drawling Master to the South citizens. I am the South Governor; which was a role given to my house even before the Wars. In essence, I speak for the Royal in charge of Wonderland. You can call me what you wish; personally I've been called some terrible names, so please use a bit of manners when choosing one."

"Fine, Abel." The name was strange on her tongue. "You're the one everyone is so..." She waved her hand in the air as she searched for the word.

"Afraid of?"

"Respectful..."

"Of a sort. I've my duties, same as anyone else. Especially in such times as these, how I perform those duties tends to form public opinion. Though I must admit, it was only partially was my duty to make sure you were alive as I was a friend of Jack Heart. The rest has been because I do not appreciate such hi-jinx in the South." He reached out with his hand. "But I'd prefer it if we were on friendly terms with one another."

She couldn't help but look at him suspiciously. "Why?"

"It makes explaining everything so much simpler. Friends are friendly and more prone to listening at times," he said, eyes widening comically as he took her hand and led her to the telescope. "Now, take a gander through there and tell me what you see."

He had a way of talking, of railroading conversation, that made it feel like even if she thought of a question it would be too late to ask it. Alice frowned but did as she was told, bending to the eyepiece at his encouragement. She had to take a moment to focus, the crystalline vision piece so strangely sharp that it caused her eye to almost ache. Then what it was focussed on came into stark relief and she lifted her head, confused.

"All I see is water."

He nodded. "And do you realize where you are looking?" he asked. Alice looked again and shook her head.

"East..." She trailed the scope along the edges of the blue water, trying to see anything that could tell her where she was looking. But the strange blue waters were slowly surging back and forth, over what looked like poles in the water, and from what she could see there was bits of wood floating in between the soft waves. She shook her head, confused by the sight but unable to look away. _The telescope must be very powerful,_ Alice thought, _to see the Lake considering how far away it is_. Without thinking, she cranked the wheel slightly and the scope moved. Behind her, the Drawling Master glanced at his daughter, his worn old face amused, and she simply looked back, giving a shake of her head.

Alice was able to swivel the focus and the grounds she was now looking at came up sharply. There were signs of train tracks and an old train car that had been exploded off the rails. She followed the tracks along, seeing signposts and remnants of buildings, but nothing beyond debris. Like pieces in a puzzle, it started to make some sense and she lifted her head from the eyepiece. Shock made her look back down again through the telescope.

"Port Town," she whispered. "That was Port Town?" There was only scraps of signs left over from the town, destroyed buildings but the direction was right and the train tracks led into what should have been a city... but now it was just water and decayed buildings. When she looked up, the telescope made a loud whining noise and went back to its normal setting.

"What was left of it," Abel commented. He walked to the other side of the scope and flipped a level. Alice had to leap out the way as the telescope whirled up into a vertical line and the prisms at the base nearly knocked against her knees. The opening in the wall closed and the old man turned to Alice, coming so close she could smell old tobacco and brandy on his clothing. His dark eyes went over her face searchingly and she had to resist the urge to look away. "You have no idea, Alice, just what you've missed."

She frowned, watching as he dug into his jacket pocket, and after a thorough search he pulled out a small, silver holo-orb. He caught her stare and sighed. "We've had 3 weeks of no communications beyond a few messenger birds carrying these. No video feeds, no pictures. Nothing beyond messages like these."

He clicked the small red button and green light flashed over Alice's face, black text hovering in the air. It took her but a moment to read and she shook her head. "That's not possible."

He gave her a look and she gave a nervous laugh. "The Council would never allow that."

"Most of the Council was slaughtered when part of the City exploded. The old Queen of Hearts has returned and every day we receive more and more refugees in the South. Why do you think my house is so busy? I dislike this influx personally. People bring problems and problems bring noise to my house," Abel explained, waving his hand as if to prove his point.

"She was imprisoned." Alice stared at the holo-orb and shook her head again. "This isn't right. Amelia... the Queen would have stopped this."

"She's in prison, awaiting a trial which will surely end in execution. Accused of the murder of her husband and apparently the death of her son, the actual heir to the throne."

Alice paled further at his casual words. "Why didn't Dodo put a stop to this with the Resistance? He used to take in refugees..."

"No one has seen that old bird since the core of the City became the only habitable section. Either he's dead or he's up to something else. Not that I ever trusted him; I wager he is knee deep in this." He reached out and took the orb from her. He twisted the base several times clockwise and this time a small map sprang up, a small 3D scale of Wonderland. "That is not the only problem. In the past month, we have lost large chunks of the Central City of Wonderland, the lake shores, and several forests. Twenty miles from here, the Metropolis of the South has no power and no running water and is overrun by creatures that supposedly kill anything in sight. People who have stayed there only leave their homes to actually leave the Metropolis and every day people leave the Central City north of us or die there. The forests in the East... there is nothing but darkness where sections of them once were."

Caryn moved slightly, attracting their attention. "There was a new report today. It was a choppy recording from one of our sources in the North, but apparently part of the Taiga outskirts has been swarmed by Jabberwocks guarding its trees. Even the animals know that something is wrong."

For the first time in a while, Alice felt a movement under her clothing. Her gryphon mark was shifting on her skin and she reached up to rub at her shoulder. The place felt warm to the touch and the mark continued to move like a caged animal on her back. She hadn't felt it move like that in so long that the sensation was briefly frightening.

It only made the Drawling Master's explanation more clear. "Wonderland... is being destroyed?"

"We're not certain of that," Caryn said but beside her the Drawling Master gave a solemn nod.

"And that is why I waited for you to wake up, Alice. Why I have listened to every story and rumour about you. Because for some reason, all of this has started to happen from the very first time you stepped through the Looking Glass. As if Wonderland has reacted to your presence. Too much has happened around you to be coincidence."

Abel looked her over again. "So it comes down for you to be a solution. But just how... I'm not certain. No one is likely to know."

The room went silent again and she tried to think around this turn of events. How quickly everything had gone topsy turvy, as Hatter would say...

"Hatter would," Alice blurted out. She flushed when both of them shot her a disbelieving look. "I don't know if either of you know him, but he would know what is causing this. Somehow... everything is locked away in his mind to protect the secrets of Wonderland... I think."

"You'd place all your stock in the mind of a man who was bred for insanity?" the Drawling Master demanded and when she nodded he looked at his silent daughter. "Just how hard did she hit her head?"

"She has a point, father. The Hatter family has always been a source of information for anyone who knows how to ask the right question. Though sometimes they have answers you don't want," Caryn said, her voice dropping off at the last bit. Puzzled, Alice looked at her. "Have you heard anything about the group they were travelling with?"

"If you can get messages from the North, you could probably send people out to find him!" Alice said, hoping making her voice high.

Abel shook his head. "No. The area near the Channel is very dangerous but even my best men couldn't find anything at the time when Pidge told them where to look. The recent tremors nearly did in the majority of paths in and out of that area. No tracks were found."

"You've not heard a thing?" Caryn asked, her voice urgent.

"Not a word directly about them per se but..."

"But?" Alice prompted and watched as he made a face.

"There have been rumours from our refugees that there is a group going around, making the destruction worse. Some of the rumours are worse than that; the stories have it that this group is little more than a mercenary group doing away with rebel factions that would rise against the old Queen. On the other hand, some tell it that it is just a group of strangers who have banded together to survive. But the stories are... not pleasant."

"That wouldn't be Hatter," Alice said, her voice so earnest that the old man looked at her. "I know it."

"I hope you're right, Alice," Caryn said for him. "Because if he is part of that group, then the consequences may be worse than you realize."

She looked at her father.

"But she is right. We do need a Hatter in this sort of situation."

The Drawling Master groaned. "Very well. I'll have some of my guards go near the Channel again to see if they can find a sign of what happened to the Snake's band or the Hatter. They can't have gone far, what with Port Town destroyed and all."

 


	24. Snakes in the Grass

There was no real freedom, not in the Manor or its deceptively beautiful acres.

Carol and Charlie, who had been living there for just a little longer than Alice, seemed to manage to keep some cheeriness about it all. Alice found that, in between her mother's endless 'mothering' over her pregnancy, neither Charlie or Carol spoke much about how they felt about what happened. Carol was too much like her daughter; if she could put it from her mind she would and could. Charlie just seemed to have put it behind him because, as he said to Alice, "All is expected in Wonderland."

That slice of philosophy gave her no comfort and Alice learned quickly to talk of other things with Charlie. He seemed to be in his own world lately, missing his home and the Cook and spending countless hours just riding Arthur around the large lawn. Alice knew that he wasn't quite himself but any questions she might have thought to ask she didn't. He wouldn't answer them anyway. It was the same as her mother; Carol could divert questions even better than Alice could. A few times she had caught her mother massaging her grey toes as if trying to feel something but when she asked about it, Carol said nothing and simply changed the subject.

It went that way for a week, and Alice found that each day that passed just continued to fray her already fragile nerves. Pidge was rarely seen, as was the Drawling Master. If Alice had been desperate, she might have asked to be given Chesh for some strange company but they insisted on him remaining in a closed area to make sure he stayed out of trouble. She had even retrieved the killing charm bracelet to prove she had some control but that had been waved aside. The South was not very tolerant of his kind, considering all the past problems Cheshires had caused, and Alice elected not to inquire after him once she found out he was alive, if not a bit put out about being imprisoned.

If the attitudes of her mother and friends left Alice a bit down, those of her hosts left her confused.

What she had thought was bitterness from the Drawling Master was — as she found out from his daughter — his most common emotion. Abel was acidic by nature: long life and his survival had depended on him being so. He was just as quick with a snappy insult as he was with a bit of happy praise. Yet Alice liked the crusty old man, even though he had a way of looking at her that reminded Alice of Hatter when they had first met. He seemed to be sharing some secret joke with her and she wasn't sure yet what that joke actually was. There was no asking him either; like his daughter and Pidge, he was masterful at avoiding her when she had questions and appearing when she forgot them.

Oddly, it was Caryn Drawling sought Alice out in the first days. Using artfully manipulative questions, she managed to learn something of Alice without once telling Alice much of herself. The younger woman wasn't stupid; she was used to Hatter pulling the same trick on her more than once. When Alice pointed it out, Caryn simply smiled and shook her head.

_"All you need to know about me for the moment, Alice, is that I've lost love and loved the lost. It changes me every day I think of it. I had the privilege of loving a powerful man and the misfortune of believing he loved me."_

Her words had such sadness in them that even Alice felt a pang of pity for the woman. Caryn struck her as rather lonely and isolated, though she was surrounded by her father's subjects. Perhaps that was what made her a bit odd to deal with.

After that exchange, the questioning had changed. In a familiar way, she'd ask Alice questions and Alice would answer the questions that weren't too personal. Several times she thought she had been drugged again she was revealing more than normal but then she realized that it was just how Caryn was. She was easy to talk to and she listened with a quiet intensity that was kindly flattering. Like a sponge, she absorbed Alice's vague bits of information about her past year in Wonderland with a sense of deep focus, wanting to know about her friends and Hatter as much as her adventures. The second day that Alice talked with Caryn, she noticed that the older woman would goad her with an oddly put question or two about the Tea Shop at random. Then, just as randomly, she would talk about something else as if the subject bored her.

Something in her eyes told Alice that she was anything but bored.

Alice wondered just what Caryn might be putting together with her questions. Caryn herself was a puzzle and there were times when she seemed to be wanting to tell Alice something without actually putting it into words. Alice found it was easier as the week went to censor herself and eventually Caryn gave up on her less tactful questions by the Second Tuesday after the Wednesday.

She had gone to check her sources, a rather jumpy young butler had told Alice, and wouldn't be back until the following day.

 _And I miss her company,_ Alice thought to herself that day when her mother had gone to bed and Charlie was off snoring in his own room. Caryn's easy listening had been good enough to stave off her boredom, as had her tours in the conservatory. Alice had seen things there she hadn't seen even in the forests of Wabe and one of the most beautiful was a glowing silver sapling called a Soultree. From what she was told, Alice figured that that tree had long been thought extinct. So its cultivation was clearly a matter of pride for the Drawling family. They were growing it for a purpose, Abel had explained, and even they weren't sure exactly what that purpose was yet.

But Alice had no urge to visit the conservatory at night alone. It spooked her in a way she hadn't felt since she and Hatter had been in the Checkerboard Taiga.

She wanted to talk to someone about Hatter but she couldn't bring herself to talk to anyone yet about him. She didn't want sympathy; she wanted someone to give her a way to find him. It was a private ache for her and her first night she had almost run out of the house into the surrounding woods after a nightmare had put her into panic. But, like most things in Wonderland, even the Drawling Manor was not normal.

In a way that made her uncomfortable, Alice came to realize that they were still in a prison of a sort. Her attempts at walking out the front gate of the manor never came to fruition. Every time she tried to get the entry hall, the entire house seemed to become a maze. When she made it out, she would find that the grounds had shifted and she was at the opposite end of the house. Walking across the lawn did her no good; the lawn would simply extend and the garden shrubs would thicken. It was like never coming to the right direction that could lead her out. The Manor, it seemed, had no intention on letting her leave.

Eventually, it only increased her frustration with this strange place. They were safe from harm but at a high cost of not being able to leave. Every time she brought it up to Pidge when she saw him in the mornings, he would act twitchy, as if he was bothered by it as well. But not once did he approach the Drawling Master or his aunt.

He seemed to be wanting to keep her safe and was willing to accept imprisonment to do so.

Alice spent long hours of her nights standing at the windows of the great library, straining to see through the constant fog that surrounded the Manor and hoping that she would just see Hatter strut up the lane-way. But there was nothing. No signs of him or even of the group they had been travelling with. Alice took no comfort from her mother's presence anymore, nor from her friends' attempts to keep her cheery. The news of the Queen's coup, of the destruction of the Coastal Port Town, of Amelia's coming execution... it all just built to a depressing conclusion.

She was standing at the windows again, leaning against the bay window frame with her head resting against the glass pane, when the enormity of the situation came crashing down around her. Feeling like she was looking into a future of utter devastation, she leaned back away from the window.

"Everything is out of control," she whispered. "One year of peace and quiet and then it all went to hell."

She rubbed her hand over her cheek, rubbing away at the tears that stained her cheeks. "What went wrong?"

Her mind went to poor Amelia, about to stand trial, to her mother and Charlie, to a now dead Jack and her kidnapped godson, and to Hatter. Raising a hand to her mouth, she stifled the urge to cry out loud. Something had gone wrong, some moment in time had warped Wonderland and was bringing everything down. They had won Wonderland from two evil Queens but in between that something had to pay the price for their success. Wonderland had always been a study in contradictions; why would it be any different now?

Only it was destroying itself and she had no idea how to fix it.

There was a sudden hard flutter against the wall of her womb, and Alice smiled, staring down at her belly. Half the time she thought she imagined this movement but it happened often enough for her to think that maybe it was real.

The very visible signs of pregnancy had caused Alice to panic at first but she had recovered since then. Her pregnancy wasn't harmed or accelerated by her trip down the rabbit hole or by her increased stress, she had been told. That single overworked doctor — the only one in the area — had guesstimated her pregnancy at four and half or five months. The doctor simply chalked it up the bit of growth to the way she was carrying. He wasn't a midwife and Alice's more intimate questions had made the shy little man even more embarrassed. She wasn't huge in the belly by any means; she could hide it with a well draped coat or shirt and often did, but the curve to her once flat stomach was definitely there, reminding her of what she had to do.

Alice sometimes saw herself having a girl, then a boy, then a girl, and at no time was she sure what she was carrying. But when she spoke or thought of something, it was like the baby sensed it. She didn't dare to use her glow magic, not since the last time had exhausted her into a small coma, but the temptation was there to see if she could actually figure out what she was having.

Charlie had declared, out of the blue, that there was something very special about her, so why wouldn't it make her baby special? But special in Wonderland often spelled trouble and it made Alice even more paranoid to protect her unborn child.

The patter of rain on the window made Alice look up to see the torrents of water starting to pound down from the sky.

"Wonderland couldn't be angry about nothing," Alice said as she watched the tree tops sway back and forth, rippling. "There is something about this that isn't right at all and I doubt it has to do with me."

A second flutter made her smile again, taking a bit of strength from it. "Then I suppose we have to make it right, don't we?"

There was another flutter and she patted her stomach. "We'll find your father. He'll know what to do. And if he doesn't, at least we'll be together."

She leaned her forehead against the cool window pane. "I just wonder what he's gotten up to in the past month."

* * *

 _One month earlier_...

"He's been sitting there for three days and we need to move on. I don't like the thought of these tunnels collapsing. Just last night I could have sworn I heard more rumbling, though it's been quieter in the past few hours." Tot, Selena's second in command, spoke hurriedly but kept his voice low and respectful. They had all been lying low lately, afraid of the Hatter and respectful of the woman who ran their little group. Yet after a few days, the constant inactivity had made everyone edgy and a bit less leery about asking questions.

The Snake was leaning against the entrance to the tunnel where they had retreated, her black eyes focused intently on the changing tiles. As they always did, they moved and crumbled repeatedly, rebuilding here and there in a strange pattern; but only one section remained undisturbed strangely. The spot where Alice and Pidge had fallen still remained, a section of floor that was suspended in mid air and never once did it even seem to start to disappear. That piece of the floor seemed to be permanent now and there was no sign of it changing now.

Selena had been watching Hatter since she had woken up in the early morning, taking over for the man she had placed on guard to be certain he wasn't about to jump. There was no telling what he might do now and she wasn't about to risk him toppling over the edge. Not once had she or anyone been acknowledged by him when they had tried to get him to talk and, though she had first thought he would try to evade their restraint, Hatter hadn't actually moved to do anything. He just sat there, staring either down into the darkness or at the swirling shadows of the walls. They had tried to move him and when that failed they simply left him bits of food, trying to coax him to move.

And still he didn't move.

This sort of devotion went beyond Selena's experience and a sort that she felt was a bit over much actually. Really, it did seem absurd. Why did he place such emotion into that girl, into clearly loving an Oyster that could destroy him with that emotion? It made no sense to her.

His education in the Resistance had been similar to hers; Dodo had discouraged much independent thinking and what thinking they did had to be for the betterment of the Resistance or whatever belief they had at the time. Selena still held that close to her own heart; raised by an indifferent grandmother and a father who had lost his wealth when the Hearts took over, she had become self-reliant while finding Dodo to be her one link to a family. She couldn't imagine leaving it. Though he had no family, without any signs of remorse Hatter had left and gained friends and a lover who he was willing to lose it all for.

That Hatter had gone beyond them all to establish a sort of family chafed at her ideals.

"Ma'am?" Tot nudged her with his elbow and she jerked, realizing that he had been speaking to her. "What're we going to do? We have to get back to the original plan, you know."

"I know." Sighing, she rotated her shoulders and cracked her neck with one satisfying twist of her head. Tot winced appropriately at the gross sound. "Leave him to me. We'll be on our way shortly, so to speak."

Tot glanced over at the others and then crept a bit closer to her. "Are we still going ahead?" At her blank look he cringed and crept closer. "You know. With what we've been set to do? It is a long trip to find the Drawling Master and it might take even longer to bend him. The old man's lived a long time. Torture might not work on him."

She gave him a cold smile. "My dear Tot. Maybe you've forgotten what happens when you learn too much and then speak too much." Her eyes trailed slowly over his face. "I can bring that education back to your mind if you like."

He paled and backed up hurriedly away from her. "I'm sorry. Won't happen again; I'll be keepin' my head low."

"See that you do."

She shrugged on her heavy black duster and gave him another warning look before stalking down the path towards the floor. Hatter still sat in the same spot, his head tilted down from what she could see, and she turned her attention to the changing floor. It was swivelling again and she patiently made her way across, once or twice nearly catching herself tripping when the floor changed quicker than she had last remembered. Though her shoes made a soft clicking sound on the tiles, not once did Hatter look around at her. Unable to resist rolling her eyes at his obvious sorrow, she came beside him and crouched.

"You all right?" she asked by way of greeting and he ignored her, his head so low that his chin was almost touching his chest. He seemed to be asleep and she reached out to shake his shoulder. Almost instantly his hand gripped her wrist and shoved it away.

"I'm fine," Hatter bit out, lifting his head enough that she could see him properly. She was struck by the change in his face already; the hollowed expression was more gloomy than she had ever seen it. He looked older now and in such a different way than normal that it troubled her, though she hid it as best as she could. Even as young teenagers she had never seen him look so down-spirited.

"So this is your grand plan then? Sit and just keep hoping something changes in the scenery?" she goaded and he looked at her with bleary eyes that were darker than his normal brown. Selena sighed and leaned in closer. "Hatter, you need to move away from here. Hell, you just need to move. It isn't healthy..."

"Alice is somewhere here," he insisted. "I know it."

"I'm sure she is," she said soothingly, like a mother humouring her child. "Come on."

Hatter's expression turned from misery to that of a lost little boy. "I know it. She can't be gone. She just can't."

"Come along," she whispered and Selena put her hand under his arm, tugging up. Too weak and uncaring to argue, he got to his feet and followed her limply across the checkerboard floor, not seeming to see his surroundings. The floors seemed to move to give them the proper path and if Selena was troubled by the change in the floors' mood she gave no sign of it. She was too focussed on keeping a firm grip on Hatter to risk wondering about the changing floors.

Getting him up onto more stable ground let her feel a bit more relieved than she had expected. Here she could make sure he didn't go back and off himself like he was probably considering. Her men moved to one side to keep out of her way as she guided the almost listless Hatter.

"I need..." He coughed hard through chapped lips, his voice dry and raspy from lack of use and water. Selena had to lean close to try to hear him. "Need to find her... She could be alive."

Selena helped him up the hill, exchanging a look with Tot. "I know, Hatter. But you need to get some sleep and tea. You're of no use half-dead to the world."

He followed her like a directionless puppy, not seeming to see where he was going or the way she kept glancing around nervously. Hatter was only concerned with maintaining the belief that Alice could be... no, that she _was_ alive. They were back in the Mirror Halls before he looked around finally, catching sight of his own reflection. With uncaring eyes, he noticed the deep purple circles of exhaustion under his eyes and the almost sickly pallor to his own skin. Hatter felt Selena's grip loosen on his arm and he sank down to sit cross-legged on the path. Groaning, he propped his elbows onto his knees and put his head in his hands before slowly rubbing at his cheeks with his fingers. He was exhausted though he had done nothing but sit.

 _"Sit sit... Life sits. Time gives the brain fits. Nothing but silliness and childish temper,"_ a sarcastic male voice hissed in his ear and he jerked to the side, looking to see who had spoken. The voice had sounded suspiciously like his grandfather. But he was alone, except for Selena returning with a mug of tea and a hunk of bread. Hatter shook his head in a jerky motion to try to rid it of the words ringing in his ears, and the movement caused his headache to worsen.

"Stop it," he murmured. "You don't want to go down that path. Just stop."

"Hatter?" Selena had stopped before him, crouching down to offer him the bread. He looked at it and then looked away, not wanting to eat though his stomach growled hungrily in protest. She pushed the bread at him. "You need to eat."

"I'm not hungry."

She arched a brow and her black eyes looked pointedly at his stomach when it growled again. "I think your body believes otherwise."

When it became clear that he was not about to take her offering, Selena sighed and sat down near him, putting the mug on the ground. Hatter put his head back in his hands, shivering. His body was stressed from lack of movement and lack of food, causing a fresh wave of nausea and a cold sweat to start to making his face damp. Selena watched him shake and mutter to himself, and all the while she was debating on how best to proceed. She turned away on her knees, putting her back to him to avoid the sight of him shaking, and grabbed the tea mug as she did so.

Discreetly, the tiny snake that had been twining itself around Selena's fingers for the past weeks slid out from her sleeve. She looked down and stroked its tiny head and the creature lifted up when her finger went beneath its chin. Stroking the soft, scaly skin, Selena felt it wrap its lower tail around her thumb and begin to constrict. The forked tongue flitted out to test the air and the moment it did Selena seized it by its head and started to squeeze hard at its jaw. The snake began to struggle, and slowly, as the pressure increased and the snake started to panic, its fangs dropped. Even in the dim light of the tunnel, Selena could see the thin red fluid beginning to dew on the edges of those tiny fangs.

"Shhh, you're doing me a service," Selena whispered as she held its head over the mug. It continued to struggle desperately as her fingers pressed its mouth open, narrowly missing the sharp prick of its tiny fangs. The tiny drops of venom fell into the black tea, and she shook the tiny snake several times to be certain that there was a more potent mix put into the tea. Finally satisfied, she released the snake and watched as it darted to the ground and disappeared into the earth. Having gotten what she wanted, she no longer cared what happened to the creature that she had been nurturing for weeks on end. Selena simply ignored its disappearance and blew on the tea to mix it until the surface became milky brown in appearance.

Hatter looked up when she nudged his knee and held out the tea. She gave the mug a bit of a shake to catch his attention and smiled. Seeming unimpressed he turned to look away and she pushed it insistently toward him, feeling like a mother having to force bad medicine on a child. After a moment, he took the mug and lifted it to his nose, taking a sniff of it and making a face.

"It'll help you sleep. You need some sleep. You look terrible," she said soothingly and her eyes caught his, knowing that he wouldn't care about being drugged with a sleeping draught. The drowning black of her eyes seemed to snare him and he stared back. After a moment, his expression took on a similar look to that of a wild animal when faced with something deadly; searching for a way to fight and desperate for release. After a moment, Selena dropped her eyes and he took the mug from her. Like a man given something distasteful to do, he sipped at the tea and set it down beside him after only a small drink. Giving a shrug, he wiped the few stray drops from his lips and sighed.

"I am sorry about her loss, Hatter," Selena said softly. She shuddered and rubbed her arms with her hands briskly, distracting herself so that she didn't betray her tiny smile of triumph. "The same with Pidge."

"She's not lost yet. I just needed a moment to... collect myself," he answered firmly and she pushed her hair from her eyes.

"Understandable. Better to keep hope alive I suppose, when before there was none."

Hatter looked over at her. For the first time in their travels, he really looked at her and he wasn't sure he liked what he saw. Determined to try to forestall the growing darkness he felt at Alice's loss, he turned some of his thoughts to his own past with this woman.

"What happened to you? And Pidge? After I left?"

"We grew up. I rejected his offer and he rejected mine. Simple. Working for Dodo and the others made life rather easy and straightforward." She seemed to close down, internalizing some memory that clearly bothered her. But Hatter didn't seem to notice, looking down at his clasped hands.

"I'll need you to help me find, Alice," he whispered. "And she'd want me to apologize for the wrongs you think I've done you."

She jerked as if he had slapped her, her black eyes narrow and speculative.

He hadn't looked up and instead was staring at his hands as he held them out before his lap now, watching as they shook. Whether it was from a lack of food or sleep, he wasn't sure. His nerves suddenly felt like they were jumping under his skin and even the fine hairs on the back of his hands felt like they were tingling. Hatter looked at the changing shade of his own skin, and for a moment saw a flash of blue and then red go up his right arm. The flashes disappeared but they left a tingling sensation that made his right side feel numb. His head suddenly felt like it had two hands on either side of it, squeezing like a vice.

"A guilty conscience is never a thing to have," Selena muttered darkly, cocking her head on the side with her eyebrows lifted.

Her eyes stayed on his face, waiting, ever so patiently, for her moment.

She had timed it so perfectly.

With a hard jerking motion, he froze, eyes wide and staring at the woman beside him. Hatter's mouth open to speak but his jaw locked and the faint sound that came from his throat was like a keening whimper. Selena's own lips did a faint quirk up and she lifted the cup from the ground, sniffing at the contents curiously. Her nose wrinkled.

"It always does foul up tea when left too long and just a few drops are so potent," she said jovially and she looked at Hatter. In those quick moments, her entire demeanour changed and she could barely keep from smiling in pleasure.

Hatter had managed to clench his right hand into a fist though the effort merely let the poison continue to work through the rest of his body. Selena moved quickly, grabbing hold of his wrist and wrenching it between them as she straddled his legs. Like a snake, she moved up against his chest and put her mouth close to his ear. His body had gone corpse cold and she shivered at the feel of it.

"You remember this, don't you?" she breathed out against his ear before leaning back and patting his cheek hard. His eyes struggled to follow her, the vision of her face blurring in his eyes. As his eyes took on a greenish shade from the snake's venom, Selena smiled. "Oh yes... you do."

His throat swallowed in reflex as it became harder for him to breath and that faint sound came from him again. Selena slid tighter against him, trailing her fingers down his face and through his hair.

"You first tasted it back when we were both working the Resistance. Back then we were experimenting with the Queen's teas and you refused to take any of real emotion teas, remember? Didn't want to feel false things like manufactured Love or Hope." She wrinkled her nose again. "Can't say I blamed you. We were ever so busy working with new formulas, new ways to disrupt the flow of the Queen's rule. There were people to kill, plans to send askew. You didn't like the harsh kills back then, didn't like to see the fruit of our handiwork or the blood it came with."

Her black eyes closed half-way at the memory. "How badly you wanted to be someone better than the rest of us. That last mission of ours... you were going to opt out, do you remember? So it took another way of persuasion. The Moondark snakes are always tiny but potent in their venom."

His body did another jerk as the nerves in his legs were sent into a spasm.

"I drugged you back then, though you will remember it as you wanting to see what we were getting into. Do you remember what happened then?" she asked and paused as if he could answer her. "Of course you do. You did perform as expected." She grinned lewdly. "And then some in other regards."

"Saved...you..." he managed to croak through a frozen jaw.

She nodded. "That you did. Without you, your long-lost big brother March would have had my neck twisted right around and I wouldn't be here today. A sacrifice I was supposed to take if necessary. But oh, you can be such a good killer when you need to be. Madness only adds to your abilities." Her mouth brushed his cheek. "Problem was that you left me just as quickly and I think you suspected that I had set you up. You didn't do as planned; you were to be a weapon of the Resistance and you destroyed that chance. You survived with your mind intact once the poison was out of your system. You hadn't gone mad at all and because of that you ruined good plans. You were supposed to be able to play both sides for both of their benefits. One cannot exist without the other; light and dark. You were always planned to be a double-sided assassin, so I was told, right from your adoption into the Resistance."

She slapped him hard, her face suddenly ugly in its disgust of him. "But you have that cursed nobility your family was once known to have. That cursed ability to see some deception behind what we were being ordered to do in our resistance to the Queen."

Selena rose to her knees, thighs still bracketing his while she forced his head back. Her fingers pulled cruelly on his hair and she lowered her face till her black eyes swam in his vision.

"It just made us create plans that were a bit more inventive. The sort of trap even you would be unable to see, unable to resist. The right pawns, the right moments... and it fell together almost perfectly, with some exception." She hissed in a breath at the accusation she could read in his eyes. "Oh it wasn't some sort of petty revenge for me. Do I look like an Oyster? You were always meant to be used, from the moment you were taken in off the streets. Our little... dalliance was just a type of icing on a cake. But all of this, it was for you... just you. You must feel special, Hatter. We were willing to destroy Wonderland to get inside of you and what your family placed in you. The secrets to control of Wonderland that goes beyond Royal Houses and Taigan magic. The ways and means of bringing everything back to the way it should have been."

Focussing hard through the icy cold pain in his body, Hatter managed to look at her with as much hatred as he could muster. She simply smiled and using her fingers she pulled his mouth open. He made a pained groan and she stroked his cheek.

"And all it took was the right application of power, the right manipulation."

She lowered her head and kissed him searchingly, tasting the burning bite of venom in his mouth still and flicking her tongue against his. She felt his revulsion though he didn't move against her and she knew that if he had been able to move he would have likely bitten through her tongue. That knowledge caused the bitterness she carried toward him to come raging to the surface, and she bit his lower lip hard enough that it bled. But it was the rage she felt vibrating in him that caused her to draw away, knowing better than to tempt fate.

"I hope your Alice was worth it, Hatter. You caused her death by denying the very thing that made you one of the deadliest in Wonderland so long ago. You were bred for it all; a mad killer, and the more you denied it the more you set the stage for your own downfall." Her fingers dug so hard into his scalp that she felt blood start to well beneath her nails. "I hope she was worth your madness."

With a surprisingly gentle push, she stood up and watched as he toppled to his back like a tipped statue. His body was stiff and unyielding and she was satisfied that he was indeed paralysed. She stepped over him and kicked out hard, catching him on the side of his head. It sent his head rocking to the side but his throat had closed again, preventing him from crying out.

* * *

He felt the pain worse than he might have before. It felt as if every nerve in his head was screeching in pain, and his eyes stared hopelessly up at the mirrored ceiling.

As he watched, the ceiling seemed to ripple like water in a pond and the ceiling started to swirl with green colours. With nothing else he could do, he stared at his own reflection. Straining to focus, he gathered as much strength as he could and managed to clench his right hand into a fist. His own nails dug so tightly into his hand that blood began to weep between his fingers but he couldn't feel any pain from the wounds. All the pain seemed to be centralized in his head. Eyes still wide and barely focussing, he could only just make out the swirls in the mirror.

The swirls swam in his vision hypnotically until he felt like he was drowning in them. Then, with a flash of light and a gust of wind, his body was lifted up and thrown to the ceiling like a rag doll. He shut his eyes, not wanting to see the impact. Under his eyelids, he could still see light and he moaned in pain.

There was another flash of light and Hatter felt like he had been thrown to the ground again, a strange propulsion that caused him to carefully open his eyes. He was no longer in the tunnels he thought, but in a room that looked familiar in its distortion and brightness. He was standing in a place of green neon lights, shining mirrors, and there was a white noise in his ears. It hurt just to look around and he winced when a flash went by him.

The only positive was that his body didn't feel half as stiff and unyielding now that he had been put somewhere else.

"But where," he whispered to himself, "in Wonderland am I now?"

Out of the ground before him, two stout little men appeared, their arms folded across their chest while they smiled at him. They were dressed in matching outfits of green and white stripes, the Heart insignia faded. Hatter looked from one to the other, and tried to shift his weight but it still felt like his legs were cemented to the ground.

The last men he had wanted to see in Wonderland, especially after their last meeting, and he couldn't defend himself.

"I know what you're thinking about," said Dr. Dum as he clasped his hands before himself, "but it isn't so, nohow."

"Contrariwise," continued Dr. Dee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."

"Logic has nothing to do with madness and everything to do with combating sanity." Hatter couldn't help but respond, the delighted voices in his head crowing with anticipation at the sight of old adversaries. His mind prickled. "Why are you here?"

"Why are we here? Well, why indeed. Why are _you_ here? Who is to say we don't live here and we aren't a product of your own madness that you have kept so long in check?" Dr. Dee asked curiously as he and his brother began to circle Hatter. The younger man tugged at his own legs but found them still frozen, trapped by some invisible hold.

"Because as crazy as I'm sure I could be, I don't think I'm masochistic."

"So you claim," Dr. Dee commented and his brother shrugged.

"Sadists would say the same thing. Personal preferences aside, we have, as we always have, only one purpose," he said before pausing in front of Hatter. He was holding a short electrical rod in one hand and he clicked its large red buttons absentmindedly. "We are here to take you apart. Like a piece of fruit that needs layer after layer to be removed."

"We have a need to get to your deepest, darkest layers. Those that rarely see the light of day."

"Good luck. Despite what the King thinks, I'm a deep well to try to get through," Hatter couldn't help but snip and Dr. Dum smiled malevolently.

"We thought you might say that. This systematic destruction of those you love is just one layer to you. We have approximately 10/6th's of an inch to your mind completed already. We're ahead of schedule and we do so love being ahead of schedule," Dum said, clicking the rod again.

"We'll go in increments. Inch by precious inch, fraction by fraction, second by second." Dee leaned in closer. "Until we get what we want."

Hatter turned his head as the two men went around behind him. "What do you want?" he asked even as the white noise surrounding him increased in his ears. He managed to lift his right hand and clenched it to his head, crying out in pain as nerve after nerve went into shock. He didn't see the two doctors shoot one another confused looks; they hadn't actually done anything.

Dee recovered first.

"We don't know precisely what it is we need from you quite yet. But we'll know once we find it. It is as we tear your mind apart to many pieces, like a bewildering jigsaw puzzle, that we shall find what it is we should be looking for. You'll tell us, in the end, exactly what we need. And you may not even be aware of it. The beauty of a good torture."

Hatter's knees buckled but a chair had suddenly appeared behind him, catching him before he fell. He collapsed forward but a band of metal suddenly twisted around his chest, constricting him to the chair. His body, too weak to struggle, simply went limp against it. Hatter tilted his head back and stared blindly at the swirling ceiling.

"Oh Alice," he whispered, straining to keep some focus as the clamour in his head began to grow louder and louder. The traps his own family had laid out were just waiting to snap against intruders.

"And you see, we already know one lever inside the shadows of your brain," Dee said as he stood behind Hatter's chair and leaned forward against his back.

Dum chuckled and came in front of Hatter. "And we will enjoy trying out all of your levers until you regret that those memories, those key parts of you, ever existed."

Hatter squeezed his eyes shut as he felt the round head of the electrical rod press into his rib cage. It was clicked on and hummed for a moment before a fresh course of shocking pain went through his body. The sound of sizzling skin and the smell of ozone filled his sense and he heard the impatient sound of the trap in his mind springing open to protect him from the torture. Too weak to prevent it, he kept his eyes closed and let his mind drift to a safer place where he could see Alice when he had first taken her to the Kingdom of Knights.

When things like this had been in only his darkest nightmares.

A place he thought he might be safe though the shrieking madness in his head that was unleashed whipped around in a fury. Voices and sounds invaded his senses, overwhelming the pain and nearly breaking his concentration at maintaining his vision of Alice. Between his madness and his torture, Hatter let his saner self find some solace in those memories. He wasn't scared of the Twins but of that dark madness that threatened to escape, that might escape if their torture continued.

Daydreams, memories; they were the only things he could use to protect himself from a madness he didn't dare experience again. Forcing himself to relax, Hatter focussed on the thought of Alice and ignored the way his skin singed under the relentless heat of the electric rod

His own personal talisman.

 


	25. Breaking the Unnatural Child

One week had passed, then another half.

No rest, no water or food,... no mercy in their unrelenting torture.

And not even the slightest hint of surrender.

It was _immensely_ trying and their impatience was growing by the minute.

Dee watched his twin dance around Hatter's still form, doing a rather worthy jig considering how tired he must be. Now and again he'd pause mid-step and forcefully prod the young man with an electrical rod. Dee, while amused by his brother's enthusiastic antics, also felt a small bit of disgust for it. While they shared a collective conscience in their motivations and ideals, they had their different styles of extracting information and Dee couldn't help but think that his way was much more... civilized.

Dum preferred physical tortures, the kind of superficial ones that could utterly destroy a body if they went on too long. Considering the state of some of their victims, there often wasn't much left to identify their corpses when Dum was finished. Dee, however, enjoyed the mental anguish that could pull apart a person, mind and soul. He could plan a route out into a mind that would tear fact from fiction and blend them all into an insane mixture that caused even the strongest to cave. Together, operating with a singular focus that their work must be finished, they had made a more than formidable team throughout the history of Wonderland. They had been respected and feared; their names often used by mothers to frighten their children into obedience.

But still, only two minds had ever been able to resist their torture and one of them was sitting before them, staring stonily ahead. Not giving an inch and taking their torture without much aplomb.

Now where was the satisfaction in that?

Standing outside of the carefully constructed illusion of the mirrors, Dee glanced at his pocket-watch curiously and marked the time before putting it back in his leather waistcoat. He could sense, more than see, the Snake lingering somewhere near by. Though he didn't like to admit it, not even to his brother, that particular woman... creature bothered him. She was single-minded to the point of self-destruction, so immensely loyal to a purpose that it bordered on rabid fanaticism. Not that it frightened him. Not really; over the course of his long extended life she was just another in a sea of loyalists in his opinion. But it did disturb him that rather than leave them to their jobs, she constantly appeared to watch and be certain their job was being done. Always ready with a sharp word or order and when those didn't work she threatened.

Even the old Queen of Hearts had not dared to interfere with them whenever they had hit their stride with a victim.

But, to be fair, Dee thought to himself, they had yet to hit that with the Hatter.

Long ago and on orders from whichever Royal they served at the time, they had broken apart his grandfather and then his father, systematically tearing into parts of them but never permanently. Somehow, that family line managed to rebuild from even the most devastating of invasions. They presented a challenge that neither twin could resist and they used them as case studies in how to proceed properly with torture. The only niggling problem was that they had never figured out just how the Hatter family managed to resist them and then rebuild after such mind-destroying interrogation.

When they had first been given Hatter to torture at the Heart Casino, he had been a gift to them from the Queen for their loyal services. She had known they had longed to get their hands on him but Hatter's false allegiance and usefulness to her had kept him from their grip until his inevitable betrayal. That had been a glorious triumph for them, with both of them eagerly planning what they could do. The ripping apart of the Alice had just been an appetizer to them; Oysters were far less complex to them, their motivations easier to discern for their skilful manipulations. Wonderlanders took a certain finesse; the masked layers and the constant word games some of them used was tricky to uncover.

They had revelled in the possibility of ripping apart another of the Hatter family until they realized just what they had come up against.

Torture after inventive torture, physical and mental, had yielded nothing in the few hours that he was theirs. Back then he had just sat there, much like he was now, and as Dee watched Dum shock the Hatter again, he flashed back to a moment that they had been at a loss over a year ago.

_Hatter sat, bound in the chair, and the room around him began to warp to the state of_ _**his** _ _mind. Without their order, the walls became green and gloopy instead of hypnotizing monochrome swirls. The change in the room had shocked them and each had to look away to make sure they hid that shock well. It was when they finally had made a mutual decision to proceed with a more physical torture that they noticed he was shivering; each convulsion seemed to carry through his wiry frame. Thinking that they had finally broken through, Dee had bent over close._

_"What secrets do you hold, boy? Something you can reveal?" he had asked. Hatter's body did one last shudder, his eyes closed as he took in a deep breath, and then he lifted his head. His eyes had seemed to be lively with amusement._

_"You're going to have to do a lot better than that, boys," Hatter had croaked._

In a way, his constant resistance and lack of capitulation had only increased their obsession with breaking him. It was why their involvement in the recent events of Wonderland had partially revolved around him. They were motivated to destroy him but Dee prided himself on being patient. Instead of kidnapping him outright when they had been brought into the plans, the twins had simply bided their time. Each event, each moment, could serve to break the Hatter further.

In waiting, the passing events had eventually helped them so that they could capture him and have the opportunity to break him to the smallest fraction. They were being well-paid to find what their employer wanted from him, but they were just as challenged to do it for themselves.

 _No one_ had escaped their tortures so intact before.

 _No one_ had exhausted their options before.

They had elected to go by this differently. Dum was to break Hatter's body, while Dee was to break his mind once the body was weak. But the process was long and they were beginning to tire after so many days straight with no rest. Hatter actually fell asleep once or twice while stuck in the hypnotized state that they had placed him in, and it had so infuriated the doctors that they had resorted to shocking him whenever he slipped away.

Dee was not to admit to his brother that for the first time he was having doubts as to their abilities.

Suddenly, Dum shoved the prod deep into Hatter's armpit and it crackled loudly, a bright blue charge exploding between his shirt and the end of the rod. Hatter grunted, his body shifting away from the pain of the charge. Instead of relenting, Dum merely moved the end of the rod until it rested just under Hatter's ribcage and stabbed upward. There was the faint screech of bone breaking under the pressure and Dee noticed the fresh open wound where Dum had struck. He had broken a rib just slightly by Dee's estimation; enough to cause considerable pain but not enough to warrant much concern on their part. Hatter's face tightened but he didn't scream as expected.

The Mirrored Tunnel he was standing in was dark, so when Dee turned his head and saw a small woman just to his left he jumped. He hadn't been expecting to see the Snake, though he had known she was around.

"How much longer?" Selena asked as she handed Dee a canteen of water. The old man shrugged and sipped delicately.

"Depends on the strength of the mind as you know. His..."

"Is stronger than most. I know that; who doesn't? Same old speech and you have yet to win any sympathy for it. You have four more days." Selena reached into her pocket and pulled out a tiny glass globe with three blue lights in it. She calculated something in her head before slipping it back into her pocket. "I've sent my men to find a conduit vat and we'll wait for you all in the Changing Hall for now."

She reached out and grabbed him by his leather lapel, causing him to gape in amazement at her audacity. "You may think that you will not be held responsible if you don't break him. But you spent years in the Queen's service, so there are certain... expectations as to your abilities." Selena leaned closer, black eyes like two bottomless pools. "And I will not be brought down with you if you fail. We destroyed so much to get such a small slice of information. Do not make that go to waste."

Dee stared after her as she moved down the hall and with a grunt of distaste he turned back to the mirrored walls. He did not like being threatened by one so unrefined as her and he filed away in his mind to use for a later purpose. He wouldn't forget it.

Still, her words had helped goad him a little.

Dee walked to the mirrors and slipped through the silvered glass to where his brother still tortured Hatter.

* * *

 _"No room! No Room! MOVE DOWN!"_ a voice screamed in his head and Hatter kept his chin lowered. The voices and the tinges of madness had become more insistent and harder to shake off.

With each hour that passed Hatter felt like he was losing more and more of himself. Not just his sanity and his control but his actual self. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw his nightmares, his fears, his memories, and it was a struggle to hide this from the Doctors. He clung to the less painful memories and found some relief in picturing Alice in happier times. It bought him valuable time and kept the darkness from swamping and drowning him. By doing so, Hatter could only hope to exhaust the Doctors, to make them no longer able to think of new ways to torture him.

But his body was beginning to scream at him to stop the pain it was being forced to endure.

His mind had been so safely locked away while he used a blind hope as a guard for it and now it now fought even his control. It felt like his mind was starting to crumble now that he had so little to fight for. A hopeless that was building with each passing moment of pain and threatening madness.

"All's piece in a pie and without a quarter to fill," Hatter mumbled and heard the click of boot heels nearby. Dum's unrelenting electric prod suddenly lifted from his side and Hatter opened in his eyes in a daze to see Dee staring at him. The only way he could tell the difference was the cracked tooth Dee had and the fact that the one twin seemed to prefer to break bones over breaking minds.

"We can end this for you," Dee said lowly. "All's fair in partial and nothing can be impartial."

"Contrariwise, if you were to be impartial than we would have no reason to be fair."

Hatter's head ached. They would do this ever so often to him; make him listen to their prattle. Instead of listening, he began to recite the rhymes his mother had taught him whenever he had been afraid of the dark.

"The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown..."

Dee leaned closer. "You can see _her_ in your head, can't you? Her and the others who felt pain because of you?" he asked and Hatter stared blankly at the floor before him, still mumbling.

"The Lion beat the Unicorn all round the town."

"You know what you caused. What your family is responsible for," Dum continued for his brother and they both began to circle him again.

"Some gave them white bread, some gave them brown," Hatter whispered, his voice hoarse from his earlier screaming. Dum slammed the butt of his rod against the back of his head with a loud thump. To fight off the flash of pain that threatened to send him into a mad anger, Hatter squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his hands against the arms of the chair. "Some gave them plum-cake and drummed them out of town."

Ending the rhyme, he began to hum an off-key melody that caused the room around them to tremble in reaction. Dum raised the rod to strike again but Dee restrained him with one hand.

"Four times around is enough for one dance," he scolded his twin, inferring that they should try something else.

"Five times though can sometimes bring in a brilliant piece," Dum countered. He reached into his leather suit and pulled out a tiny mirror. Dum grabbed a fistful of Hatter's dark hair and wrenched his head back painfully hard. He held the face of it before Hatter and flexed his fingers to cause a fresh spark of pain in the man's scalp. Hatter's eyes opened in reflex and he found himself staring into the hand mirror.

Staring at the shimmering surface, he was transfixed with the sight of a dark haired girl standing lost in a dark apartment.

" _I don't want to go in there..."_

Hatter whimpered at the sight of Alice being interrogated by the Twins. The images rewound, showing him the floor crumbling beneath her, the fragility of her mind when faced with the agonizing disappearance of her father. A fragility he knew had existed, had tried to protect her from, but at the sound her lost voice he groaned in despair.

"Her mind was rather tragic, wasn't it?"

"The Lion and the Unicorn," Hatter started but he broke off as the image in the mirror changed to that of his mother, a face he remembered with nothing but pain. It was the day she had gone to find his father at the White Manor, the last day he had seen her before she had been declared dead.

"You unnatural child," Dee said from where he stood before him. "You have a very bad habit of causing death and destruction in your wake, don't you?"

"His whole family does. An unnatural family," Dum agreed. Hatter couldn't look away from the sight of his mother, toying with her chain necklace and watching a younger version of himself play. All the time she wore that secretly amused look that he himself had inherited from her. Just beside her he could make out his father measuring something out in cups with a glazed expression and he trembled in memory.

"Which one are you more like? The fragile yet strong mother, or the powerful yet certainly mad father?" Dee asked and he cast Hatter a look he reserved for insects he ripped the wings from. "Which did you try to be for your Oyster?"

"Your attempts at credibility, at honesty...and you still destroyed people you love."

"No," Hatter whispered, eyes closing against the sight of his mother as she waved good bye to him.

"You cannot change what you are. A failed experiment by Wonderland to create a bank of knowledge," Dum said from behind him. "You are a mad creature that should have been drowned at birth. Likely your father took it into consideration. The inferior mutt puppies tend to be thrown into a sack once they are whelped."

"No!" Hatter said, louder but his voice shook. Like wolves on prey, the twins had figured out a weakness in him and they grinned maliciously at one another. Dum let go of his hair and clasped his fingers tightly around his neck, before he began to slowly slice a thin red line down Hatter's cheek with the sharp edge of the hand-mirror. Finding some hidden reserves of strength, Hatter tried to struggle and felt Dum's fingers dig deeply into his windpipe.

"You caused your mother to bleed and, being the unnatural child you are, you helped bring about her death. With your ridiculous attempts at living a different and honest life, you caused the situations that brought about your lover's death. You lived a lie denying what you are, boy, and look at what it caused."

Hatter strained to focus on his inner vision of Alice to try to calm himself and Dum seemed to sense it. His fingers clenched so hard around Hatter's throat that he began to choke and his eyes fluttered in pain while he struggled to breathe.

Dee leaned forward. "Can you imagine what it was like for your Alice to die? Down in the dark abyss, torn apart by gravity and pressure? What would that have been like, hmm? A different perspective on death, I suppose. Plummeting and never seeing what kills you."

"Her death... because you and your mad habit of hiding things. That endless fountain of knowledge that you keep stoppered and you likely knew the trap you were walking into. But oh, you knew best, didn't you? You knew best and kept it from her," Dum continued for his twin, speaking in Hatter's other ear. Unable to do otherwise, Hatter stared at Dee. His blank mask crumbled to show a faint twinge of pain in his expression, a look that revealed just how deeply the words had cut. They were a play on his own deep insecurities, his own grief, and he was weaker now than he had been before. Weaker and easier to control.

They were not as deeply in his mind as Archibades had been during his invasion, and so he couldn't just propel them out. The illusion they had pulled him into with the help of the Snake's paralysing hallucinogen had snared him more effectively than any noose. Almost all of the traps in his mind were sprung, leaking out a disorientating sensation of constantly falling, and he felt such pressure in his head. Pressure that made him almost lose more control in the effort it took to subdue it.

It was a clever plan, some dark voice in his mind whispered. By simply scratching away at the already crumbling pieces of his mind, by destroying what he loved and cared about in the weeks leading to this torture, they had made him vulnerable.

And he wasn't sure if he cared anymore.

He felt it lingering, a warm darkness that invited him to fall into it and take comfort from it. All in exchange for releasing that slice of genetic insanity to protect him, to let a darker madness take over. The very thing his father had made him swear to never resort to if he had a choice. But with nothing else for him but pain and despair, what choice did he have?

With a sigh, he let his eyes roll back in his head as the roaring in his ears became so overwhelming that unconsciousness was bliss.

* * *

The twins sensed the change in Hatter immediately; both the physical and mental changes that seemed to thicken the air around them. Curious, Dum released the metal bands that bound Hatter and put his prod on standby. He was glad of it when Hatter's body did a violent jerk that made him click it to full strength in case.

With equal apprehension, they backed away as Hatter went from a slouch to stiff as a board, his head lolling back on his shoulders. His body was rigid and his hands clenched tightly on the arms of the chair. After a moment of immobility his head came back down, tipping on the side as if he was listening to something. Slowly, his eyes opened and Dum backed away from the sight of those dark and pitiless eyes.

Dee was made of sterner stuff though and waited, watching as Hatter's head fell back. Something was going on beneath the surface and he waited for the silence to break.

It didn't take long for something to happen but what it was that caused it they didn't know.

Hatter's scream startled them both as his hands clenched tightly onto the arms of the chair. His throat bulged and strained as the scream began to increase in volume and pitch, multiplying until it seem that a multitude of voices came from his mouth. The echo was deafening and the chorus of voices were out of harmony and contrasting one another violently. The veins and muscle in his throat seemed almost ready to leap from beneath his paling skin, as if the screams were being pulled from him.

The screams faded slowly and he closed his mouth though his head remained back on his shoulders. The veins and muscles relaxed but his skin remained grey in tone. He rocked forward in his chair, leaning far over until he collapsed out of the chair and onto his knees.

"'Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare, "You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair." As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose. Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes," Hatter whispered, his voice almost sing-song and breaking now and then. His eyes stared at nothing at all, the vacant expression making his eyes dilate wildly. "Toes stuck in grey...burns away."

"He's just going to recite. Worthless," Dum muttered. This was the pattern they had noticed before with him. The rhymes had changed though and he glanced at his twin.

"Copy it down anyway. Who knows, we may have it," Dee ordered.

Hatter gave an odd high-pitched laugh. "When the sands are all dry, he is gay as a lark. And will talk in contemptuous tones of the Shark. But, when the tide rises and sharks are around. His voice has a timid and tremulous sound."

The colour of Hatter's eyes changed, becoming warm amber in shade and the vacant look became unnaturally focussed. His laugh morphed into an insane giggle and he drew a circle on the ground. "Dip to go back, go forth, curled in the centre, dead in the centre. Takes a soul to make a soul, to make a path. Some souls worth more than others. Makes no sense but nonsense, of course it makes sense. Perfect sense."

Dee crouched low before Hatter, his bright eyes intent on the stricken face in front of him. Just over Hatter's babbling he could hear Dum scribbling furiously away on his pad of paper all that Hatter said.

"Mirrors," Dee prompted to try to coach Hatter and he watched as some force in Hatter twisted him violently in the air. His body began to convulse as he fell to his back, and each spasm that tore through him produced a whimper of agony.

The twins glanced at one another curiously. Nothing they had done could have produced such a reaction.

"Keys to Wonderland and no keyhole to fit 'em. How angry the old Queen will be," Hatter whispered while he lifted his right hand in the air. He whimpered again and brought the hand close to his face to inspect it.

Dee could see that the angry red wound on the back of it was now pulsing. Slowly, with each throb, a small shard of blackened glass began to emerge from beneath the skin. Dee rocked back on his heels in recognition when he saw the shimmering of its bloodied surface.

A piece of the Looking Glass.

Hatter had finally stopped convulsing and was now starting to speak in a hurried voice, "Lovely garden party but no one's invited. Lummoxes and lacklustre fools."

He stopped and his hand turned this way and that as he studied it. Sitting up, he licked at the blood curiously.

"All this needs," he whispered and he suddenly wrenched the glass shard from the wound, " all it needs is a soul. Dip it in the gyre and the grey and you control time itself."

His voice changed and became modulated and angry.

"Stupid Time! Steals everything because of an Oyster's mistake, an Oyster's deception!"

"Tell us about the rites for Conduits," Dee insisted and Hatter closed up, his dark eyes flickering over the doctor's face dispassionately. Dum, frustrated with waiting and overly eager with the information they had already gleaned, grabbed at Hatter's shoulder and raised the electric prod once again.

"Pain could be your last..."

He didn't get to finish his sentence when his eyes locked with Hatter's now open eyes. Managing only a squeak of fear, Dum wasn't able to dodge when Hatter lashed out with the glass shard. He caught Dum on the left side of his face and dragged the sharp shard down hard and fast, grinning while Dum screamed as the glass split his eye-socket and cheek open cleanly. It was done with an almost surgical precision and with enough force that the flesh opened easily. The doctor shrieked and Hatter twisted the shard hard into his cheek, cutting into muscle and bone. He continued to twist until Dum dropped the prod in his agony. Clutching at his face, the wounded Doctor raced away before Dee could stop him, disappearing from the illusion.

Dee remained, feeling for the first time both a phantom pain for his brother and deep, instinctive fear for his own life. But he was determined to finish this somehow.

Hatter had resumed speaking to himself and Dee stepped around him gingerly, kicking the prod away incase Hatter thought to use it on him. Listening to the rapid words and half-formed phrases, Dee tried to piece together the information Hatter shared as his mind began to trap itself. It was as if he couldn't hold it all in anymore and the Doctor was determined to wait it all out.

Hatter's voice changed between tones and accents, so that he appeared to be mimicking a jumble of people. Instead of just listening to what was in his head, he began to repeat it out loud

" _Wrong tea. Death to find a way to travel."_

_"Made a mistake in travel. Could go back, could go forward. Change it all to be like it was."_

Hatter clutched at his dark hair and pulled hard, speaking in his own voice, "Stop it! All of you!"

The jumble became worse as the voices overlapped, and he continued to pull at his hair.

_"Can't see a forest through the Jabberwocks."_

_"Alice won't like this. Caused her to die. Can you imagine how mad she'll be that we got her killed?"_

_"Oh, 'tis love, 'tis love, that makes the world go round!"_

_"Could kill her. Stop the pain before it starts. Might be a way to solve the problems. Kill the oyster."_

_"I won't. I will. Will, won't. All the same to a corpse."_

He rambled and raved, lost without a direction in his thoughts, for several minutes that felt like hours. When Hatter finally spoke in his own natural voice, it was monotone and low, "Kill an Oyster. Find a way back out to go forward. Just leverage and emotion."

Dee stopped his pacing before Hatter and backed away a few more steps. So it was done using an Oyster's glow and choosing a moment, in a selective way. There was something that had to be done with taking the soul, a process perhaps. It would take additional probing to find out how...

Before he could think on it further, Hatter suddenly leapt to his feet and stood with his posture erect and stiff. He stared at Dee flatly and the doctor felt a trail of ice go up his spine in reaction to the look. The cocky young Wonderlander was nowhere to be seen in this man. All that was left was a physical embodiment of the very madness that had made his family infamous. Not a giggling madness but the sort of dark insanity that was far more terrifying. In all his years, Dee had never meet one from this family that made him feel such terror.

The flat look was there still, making Hatter's face blank without a hint of emotion or expression.

 _What have we done?_ Dee thought as Hatter continued to stare at him.

With a voice perfectly pitched and without the hint of an accent or inflection of emotion, Hatter ordered lowly, "Let me out."

Swallowing down his fear, Dee could do nothing else but that.

* * *

Selena had been uncharacteristically shocked when Dr. Dum had appeared, screaming, from the Mirrored Halls. She had only just returned from giving her own men orders and the sight of the stout man bloody and battered had made even her pause in shock. The few men that remained caught him before he could fall but several had to turn away from the ghastly sight of his face. Ruined flesh, a dripping eye socket now empty except for a sliced bit of eye, and a shard of glass twisted deep into his cheekbone made for a terrifying sight for anyone close enough to see it in detail.

Tearing her eyes away, she looked back up at the mouth of the Mirrored Hall to see Dee walking down the path. He was nervously toying with the leather buckles of his suit, eyes darting this way and that.

When he paused and seemed to want to go back, she quickly shoved her way through her own men and went to him. Turning harassed eyes to hers, he let go of the buckles.

"What happened?" she demanded.

He took his time answering, as if even he wasn't sure what had happened. Something that made her uneasy. "There are times when we wind a spindle too tightly... that when it unravels it does so too quickly and there is no control of the mess that it makes when the fragile strings lie in tangles."

She stared at him stupidly. "What?"

"We did as ordered but..."

"You broke him?" Selena asked incredulously, barely able to keep the excitement from her voice.

"Well, in a way but..."

"Did he tell you what we need to know?" she interrupted.

"Well, in a way," Dee conceded in a distracted way. He was disturbed by the sight of his screaming, wounded twin.

"But this is good news." She smiled. "It means I don't have to kill you just yet."

Her words seemed to pass over his head as he simply nodded in agreement, eyes on his brother. Her threats meant nothing to her when he saw the sheer agony his other half was experiencing.

Once Dum's shrieks became quieter, Selena was aware of the sound of footsteps snicking on the ground behind them. The unhurried pace of someone taking their time in joining them.

"We succeeded," Dee finally said. "But at what cost, I don't know."

She looked over at him, ready to question him, but he was ignoring her. He turned and walked away to help Dum, but there was no hiding the troubled look on his face. Thinking him merely the usual temperamental, psychotic sort, Selena glanced over her shoulder as the footsteps slowed.

Like looking at a hypnotizing swirl, Selena was unable to look away though Dr. Dum was still whimpering like a child. Selena could only stare as Hatter slowly came from the shadows back into the Changing Hall. He was bloodied and dirty, his hair lank and ropey and his pale skin seemed to shimmer in the swirling lights of the Hall's walls. Frowning, he touched his side, which Selena could tell even from a distance was bloody from a deep wound. He lifted his hand to check it and gave a dismissive snort.

Wiping his hand on his shirt, Hatter raised his head and took everything in with a sweeping look. He then tipped his head on the side, dismissing the sight of everything without a hint of emotion. He leaned against the last section of the wall and looked down at the ground.

Wiping suddenly clammy hands on her coat, Selena approached him carefully. She could hear him still muttering away, though his voice was somehow foreign to her.

But it was when he looked up and snared her with eyes that glinted with a foggy green light, that Selena realized he was not the same Hatter. Not one she had known or the one that he had become over the course of time. That Hatter was not actually in this shell anymore; at least, not that she could tell. Mad March as a man had looked like this, as had the Doctors in some way, and she had glimpsed this in the past when Hatter had once killed without compunction for the sake of the Resistance. Only there was no trace of anything of his former self this time to be seen just in his face, not even a hint that there was anything deeper to him that was still kind.

He held no signs of acknowledging her though while she stepped closer to him. It seemed that whatever was going on inside him was absorbing his attention. She heard him growl at something to shut up and then his eyes closed, his face twitching between expressions.

Selena came closer and reached out, wondering if he felt as cold as he looked.

"If you touch me," Hatter said without opening his eyes, "I will kill you and in such ways you may beg for me to make it quick."

She stared, shocked. Not by the threat or by the violence she could almost feel oozing out of him. It was his voice.

The voice was different; cultured and refined. He sounded like he had had a Royal upbringing and not the rough and bare street education he had had with the rest of the younger Resistance members. It was silkier too and each word held a deep threat; the tone of a killer so adept at their game that they did not need to frighten with loud words or actions. A tone Selena had heard once before: when she had drugged him that first time, a drugging that had led to him killing his own estranged brother. March had not stood a chance then though he had been older and by all accounts stronger; something had been stronger in Hatter at that moment, more cunning and darker. They had been stunned when the Queen's dreaded assassin had been taken care of so easily by the smaller and less experienced Hatter. And, skilled and heavily armed as she was, Selena knew instinctively that she would not stand a chance either. A painful admission for her to make but she stepped back.

He did mean it with every word and twitch of his face. He would kill her.

This other side to Hatter did not warn lightly.

He was looking away now, eyes open and staring blankly around him as he held one hand to his temple.

Dee came up beside Selena silently to whisper in her ear. He warned her — the foolish man, did he think her that stupid not to realize the threat that Hatter posed? Then he began to tell her of Hatter's slight reveal. Of what was required and the way it needed to be done to create what she had been ordered to create. They needed the formula for the conduits though, and Hatter would not have the ingredients to fulfil it.

Not yet anyway. There was still that one Oyster wandering around Wonderland.

A plan came to mind for her then, a deliciously deadly one. She knew of only one place, one person, who could hold the saps of the Soultrees, the endangered plants that the Queen had almost wiped out... and have access to finding an Oyster glow. A man who had humiliated the Resistance as much as King Jack had. A man who had run his own rebellion and who up till now she had feared to go after for his knowledge.

Who had, in her opinion, been in control for far too long.

Eyes glinting, she crept closer by a foot towards the silent man before her. "Hatter," she whispered, pitching her voice low so that she didn't startle him. He looked over at her and she almost recoiled at the desperately pained look in his eyes. It wasn't clear if he actually saw her though. "We can have your revenge for the death of your Alice."

A spasm went through his face, revealing that even in madness the Oyster remained his weak spot. Whatever was going inside his head was hidden from her but she could tell that this could be a possible control.

"Give me a name. Make it end."

Selena smiled. "The old Governor and cousin to the old King... the Drawling Master. Who else would dare to go this far? His family has been in power in the South, second to only the Hearts, and who is to say he didn't list for power. After all, his family was responsible for giving the formula to create the conduits. He would have been trying to destroy the conduits to regain power for himself from the Hearts. He would go to any means necessary to put himself into power. Including making it possible for your Alice to die," she explained and carefully she stepped back. She watched him process this information, no longer seeing reality from the fabric of his own imagination. The killer in him was thrilling at the prospect of death while the remaining fragments of the old Hatter were desperate for revenge. He needed something to absolve his own guilt about Alice's death. He accepted it with a visible smile. This madness blended perfectly with his grief and that deadly combination would need an outlet.

Then, as if he had been struck, Hatter crumbled to his knees and clutched at his head. Confused, Selena watched as he ranted and raved in a low voice, while silent tears slipped from his eyes. But even weeping he was dangerous and Selena wisely stepped away.

Dee was at her side again in a heartbeat, smelling of blood and sweat.

"You should kill him."

She blinked as if her eyes had to adjust to the sight of him. "We can control him. Have you ever seen a member of the Hatter family kill?" she asked and saw him swallow. Apparently he had. "Aye, it is poetry in motion. The Drawling family has long deserved a bit of trouble for their own harms to the Resistance and they do have what we need, I'm sure of it. Didn't the old legends say it was because of the Drawling Master's one time loyalty to the White Queen that the Oysters were led to their demise in Wonderland? We can continue to probe Hatter's mind to learn more and more of the secrets his family buried in him."

She looked at Hatter, still deaf to the world around him, and smiled. "I will enjoy letting a wild card like this loose into the South; there is much to... regain for us all here and no one told me exactly how I could go about it. I'm allowed to choose and I want to see that old man beg for death after giving us what we need to complete our little adventure."

Dee glanced at Hatter. "But you can't control him with just words! His mind will continue to crack and the more it does the more likely it is that he will kill anyone in his way to relieve that madness."

Her smile faded, not liking that he had pointed it out. "No, I can't."

The doctor sighed in relief.

"Which is why you and your brother shall come with us." Dee stared at her in shock, having thought his role done. She snapped her fingers at the nearby Tot and the thin man immediately handed her a tiny holo-orb. Selena rolled it between her fingers. "I had managed to record the moments of Alice's death. Use this and the memory-distort pills I know you have on you to keep him leashed. We'll have our fun using that darker side to him but we'll need him controllable. I want you to use her death to bring him to heel and I know I don't need to tell you how. Use it until he learns to hate the very memory of her for causing him such pain. I want him to rage."

She threw the orb at him and Dee caught it with obvious disgust. "He loved her deeply. I am not sure it is wise to think her memory will weaken him. The very things we feel strongly about can make us resist even the worst pain."

Selena merely smiled. "I don't want him weak, Dr. Dee. I want him so infested with madness and agony that eventually, when we no longer need him, it will only take a small push for him to kill himself with his own insanity."

She glanced at the still crouched and mumbling Hatter.

"It is just a pity that his lover wasn't here to see this."

So filled with a malevolent sense of satisfaction and pride, she laughed long and low. Her men turned at the foreign sound and they all missed the sight of the shard of glass that had been pulled from Dum's face changing colour. It went a bright blue, and a thin woman's face appeared in the reflection, staring in the direction of Selena. Opening her mouth, she let out a silent scream of rage that attracted no attention.

No one heard the scream but they immediately felt the tunnels begin to shake violently. Hatter, who twitched and mumbled to himself, heard a woman shouting in his head for him to come out of the darkness and back to Wonderland, to her. But he only thought that the voice belonged to the mad crowd within him and he bowed his head at the pressure of the urgent screams.

 


	26. The Gnat's News

Alice ran up the stairs, barely managing to keep her footing when the thick carpets turned to hardwood, but she ignored the stagger in her stride. Singularly focussed in her eagerness, she kept her balance with a determination she hadn't felt in days. Each time she passed someone in the halls they had to jump out of her way in the face of her blind run. She didn't even see them, though she was aware that a few yelled at her to slow down.

Skidding around a corner, she grabbed the corner and swung herself forward. The halls seemed endlessly long but she didn't care. Finally, after all this waiting, she had news! Alice almost forgot to check herself as she shoved open the doors to the conservatory and she let the door slam behind her with a loud bang.

 _News!_ That single thought kept her attention as she pushed and muscled her way through the thick vegetation that grew around the entrance to the conservatory. She didn't even care if she was followed or if the other people wondered at the strange sight of her running around in the middle of the night. She was sure Wonderland had seen odder things than her running like a maniac through the dim hallways of the Manor.

It had been just after midnight when a nervous maid had knocked on her door. The girl had handed over a note from the Drawling Master and told her that she was to read it immediately, as per his order. She had the harassed look of a servant who was terrified of her employer and she had been adamant about not leaving. Alice, half-awake because of her nausea and grumpy because of it, had almost told the girl to go away but she had read the note anyway.

The maid had barely been able to get out of her way when Alice shoved her feet into her boots and darted from the room with a burst of energy that was almost incredible for that time of night. Alice had been vaguely aware of the maid calling out after her but she hadn't heard a word she said. She hadn't even bothered to wake Charlie or her mother in the next rooms, too worried about getting to the Drawling Master on time.

After a week of odd stasis, she was more than ready to hear something, anything, about what was happening in Wonderland.

Now that she was inside the conservatory, Alice paused and pressed her hand to her chest. She managed to suck in some air to her burning lungs and reaching out, she braced herself on one of the large trees in the centre of the conservatory's tiny clearing. The entire room was dimly lit by a mixture of hovering lamps and the overhead windows allowed for some moonlight. It made the room a little less forbidding than Alice normally found it and she took a quick look to where the telescope stood in the distance, an almost too modern structure in the midst of such greenery. But there was no sign of anyone else near its eyepiece, which was unusual, and she wondered if maybe she had missed the Drawling Master.

From what she knew, it would make sense for North Abel to pull such a trick. He seemed to like to play games with her and her mother.

"You made enough noise, crashing around like that, and I'm surprised the entire Manor isn't awake because of that," said Abel dryly, his nearby voice startling Alice. He was bent over the Soul-sapling, and his hunched body was half-hidden by the thick bushes and flowers that surrounded the tree. It was unusual to see him away from his telescope when in the conservatory; Alice had become used to him using it as a sort of shield against her. Unaware of her thoughts, he continued to clip one of the tiny branches on the Soul-sapling and held it up to the artificial light of the lamp hovering close to his head. Abel tsked in his throat. "An unhappy tree. See these brown leaves? Something has made it upset."

"You have news?" Alice demanded impatiently, not about to be put off by one of his lessons in gardening.

He looked over at her, his craggy face disapproving. "Patience is not your strong point, Alice."

"Being forthright isn't yours," she snapped and his dark eyebrows rose nearly to his grey hairline. "You had someone wake me in the middle of the night in order for you to lecture me about pruning?"

"No. To talk about your Hatter." He saw the immediate change in her face and the strength in her glow, the sight almost overpowering. "By Wonderland, you need to learn to mask that better, Alice. You could give away the world in such a look."

"What did you hear about Hatter?" she insisted, ignoring his jibe. Annoyed that she hadn't taken his bait, Abel rolled his eyes and pointed over to a low tea table that was surrounded by a ring of orange hover-lanterns. On the table lay a small pile of maps and ledger books, several of the books open and clearly worn from being read so frequently. Unable to hide her eagerness, Alice almost ran to the table and quickly grabbed the thickest ledger book. Letters were pressed within its pages and she scanned them, piecing out information about the pockets of destruction around the South and what was going on in Wonderland. Some of the letters were about the City, some about the sudden and swift coupe being performed, and she read them all. Each left her a bit more troubled and she tried to find even a sliver of good news.

It was when she saw the last, blood spotted letter she almost dropped the book.

"According to recent reports, Alice," Abel began, clearing his throat and getting creakily to his feet, "there is a group of old Resistance members now running through the South, taking care of old... enemies of the Dodo and the old Crown alike."

He said it so casually and without any concern that it took Alice a moment to understand just what he had said. Lifting her chin, she stared at him.

"Taking care of?"

"Old man talk for 'torture and kill in the most heinous of ways'," the Drawling Master admitted. He laughed at his own wit but then the smile dropped from his face immediately. "Those that have been killed were all people I knew or knew of. Almost all of them had some role in my own group: some as double agents in the Resistance and some within the old Queen's court and a few triple agents as well. Nobles, commoners, witches, physicians, shelter givers, farmers... the list of who they are and what they did for me is extensive. Each has been reported as either dead or silenced by different means that are as permanent as death. I've had about ten agents killed from my own personal guard, ones that I set out to find information weeks ago. Let's see here: Elepha, Raven, BlueRed, and Tulip for starters. Thankfully, I've kept some of my best here. Triple agents like Pidge, Alicorn and Lyon are on my own guard, and they've managed to recall some of our old agents back to my service."

"Who brought you this?" Alice asked, her hands shaking as she picked up the letter again. "I thought you said no letters could go in and out now."

"I did say that, didn't I? Of course, I meant that messages that came by holo-orb and by those of my messengers. Carrier pigeons are notoriously stupid and get shot out of the sky easily. What that means is I had to get a little... inventive I guess you could say."

Abel passed her and grabbed a large stick from the ground. He tossed it up at the glass ceiling and one of the screens popped out when it was struck. Whistling through his teeth, the Drawling Master caught the stick with his hand and twirled it back under his arm. As his whistle died, a black blur came through the open window, whizzing around Alice's body and brushing her cheek with a gentle softness. She turned to follow the blur and watched as it became clear that it was a bird.

The black crow alighted on the branches of the Soul-sapling.

"The Crows," Alice whispered, dropping the book and walking to the bird. It squawked and bounced along the sapling's tiny branches, reaching out to peck gently at her outstretched fingers. She stroked its black breast, feeling the softness and finding comfort in it. "I haven't seen them since we left the City."

"Interesting," Abel said and another Crow flew through and landed on his outstretched arm. It squawked at him, flapping its wings impatiently. "Because they've been watching you. Or so they told me.

She jerked. Hatter had always thought it odd that she had been able to understand the Crows back in the Taiga. "You... you can understand them?"

He gave her an affronted look. "Please, Alice, you aren't the only one with a touch of magic about you. They were most concerned about you, you know, and when Crows are upset they make barely any sense."

"That's not surprising," Alice muttered but Abel continued as if she hadn't spoken,

"They've been acting as recorders if you will, of your adventures. They've been in and out of the Manor for days now, going willy-nilly all around the South. These two came to me just this evening and told me all of the more recent news that was most unfortunate to hear. But Crows rarely lie. Lovely creatures, if not misunderstood. You saw that and for that they act as your willing friends and messengers. Which is why they've been tracking you since you left the City."

"They've followed me? I never saw them," Alice said, still stroking the feathers of the bird on the tree. The tree seemed to shimmer when she touched its leaves accidently.

"Perhaps you weren't meant to. Who can tell with Crows?" Abel answered and the Crow flew from his arm to Alice's shoulder. It preened at her hair and she smiled, walking back to the Drawling Master. His eyes were sharp as he watched the Crow on her shoulder. "But, you see, Alice, a promise is a deep thing in Wonderland. Whether it is a pact between you and the Crows, in return for what you've done, or the pact between you and the Hatter, which is a bond you shouldn't sever."

He turned slightly and picked up the letter she had dropped when the birds had come through.

"No matter what." He turned the letter around and opened it, holding it gingerly to avoid the spots on the page. "According to the Lyon, the group is headed by the Dodo's second in command in the South Resistance, Selena, code name Snake. Once chief assassin for the Resistance and now followed by a group of over one hundred mercenaries recruited in the course of the month. Men who have been described as Lake Prisoners."

"But the Lake Prison is closed. Those men should still be in prison," Alice answered.

"Reopened by Royal Creed, many of the men were pardoned. Especially those that were devout to the old Queen." The older man sighed and began to make his way back to the telescope. "I hate to admit, Alice, that I was wrong. But the reason why is because I was blinded. And had I known... I could have saved us all this."

"Known what?"

He turned and stared at her from sad brown eyes. "Just what I risked twenty-five years ago when I was still a spiteful and unwilling servant to the Hearts."

"It isn't like you to tell the whole truth, grandfather. What's the point starting now?" Pidge's voice interrupted and Alice jumped, turning around.

"Pidge?" she called out, barely able to see him through the thick vegetation. She could just make out his lanky outline in the shadows. "Where've you been?"

"Acting like one of your Crows, apparently. Gathering information has never been my favourite thing to do." Pidge stepped through and Alice noticed the faded bruising just below his left eye. His face was drawn into harsh, exhausted lines and his sharp eyes went from her to the Drawling Master. "Tell her about it, Abel. The more you delay, the worse you are going to make it."

She looked at the Drawling Master, who had seated himself at the tea table.

"It is better we show her." He nodded to the shadows behind Pidge, and Alice noticed the two figures that had arrived when she had been focussed on Pidge. "Bring him in, Nurse."

Something creaked and she turned to watch as a small, stout woman in a neatly pressed navy blue uniform pushed a spindly wheelchair further into the conservatory. The wheels wobbled dangerously on the mown grass and Pidge moved to one side so that the chair was able to move further under the light of the hover-lamps. The Crow on Alice's shoulder nipped at her hair once more before flying to land on the railing of the telescope, leaving her free to walk over to the nurse. The woman gave her a skeptical look as she approached, one hand resting on the shoulder of the man in the wheelchair.

"I'll thank you not to disturb him too much. He is still very vulnerable to being overexcited. With his injuries, we cannot risk that," she warned before stepping back to allow Alice to walk around the chair. Alice frowned and leaned over at the waist to take a closer look, only to have to take a half step back in her shock.

The Gnat's head was held so low his chin almost touched his chest, but she could recognize him by his sunken face and thin body. It was only just barely that she could make out his face, for he had been badly beaten and there was no part to his face that wasn't bruised. The way he breathed was forced and almost too loud as if he couldn't control it, and his were hands shaking on his lap. There was a thin line leading from the back of his hand to an IV attached to his wheelchair by a rod, and a scrap of gauze was bound around his head but she could see the splotches of blood staining it already. Nitze's eyes opened, as if he could feel her looking, and his mouth moved but no words came out.

"I sent him to go and see who was causing such destruction of our friends. Him and five others from the local village," Abel said from where he sat. "And he is the only one who returned. It was Nitze who wrote the letter that the Crows brought to me but Pidge was the one who went to find him for me."

"What happened to him?" Alice said, crouching down before Nitze. Pidge stirred out of his almost rigid stance and she looked over at him. His eyes were not on Nitze's broken form but on her, and with the intense sort of look that made her uncomfortable.

"He was interrogated. Like most people trained, he was able to keep from spilling much information but it looks like something tore into him. For what information, I'm not sure. He knew all the gossip there was to know; that makes it hard to guess just what anyone would look for. But what was done to him... I've not seen such a thing since the Resistance was in full force years ago," Pidge explained. "I found him near a toth's nest, half-dead and unconsciously muttering about his torture. He had clearly tried to change forms but it didn't work; he was stuck between bodies when I found him. The doctor only just got him back to his normal form a few hours ago. It was the Crows that led me to him, you know. They've proven useful."

There was a faint grunt from the injured man and Alice looked back down at him.

Nitze was trembling in the wheelchair, his broken face puffy and bruised to the point of it being pitiful. Alice stared, wide eyed and dumbstruck by his injuries, and Nitze met her eyes. He reached out with a hand and she took it gently, feeling the ice of his skin. It was as if he had been plunged into a tub of ice cubes and she resisted the urge to jerk her hand back. The Gnat's sad smile was heart-wrenching and when he showed his teeth she noticed that many were broken; only pieces remained implanted in his gums.

"Miss. Alice, delightful to see you," he seemed to be trying to say but all that came out was a garbled mess of words. Alice looked up at Pidge and he looked away, eyes on the wheelchair instead.

"He's... a bit slow with the talking still. But, believe it or not, he's better than he was. The doctor was able to stop most of the bleeding and infection." He nodded to the nurse and the stout little woman pulled Nitze away towards the flowers. Alice was relieved that his icy grip was gone but the sight of the once wiry but strong man now crippled made her wonder. The two men nearby had clearly meant for her to glean something from this but her mind was still stuck on his broken condition.

She was stuck on why this all seemed so familiar to her. It had been over a year ago but she remembered it clearly, because, though she had pretended differently, it had bothered her back then. She had seen Chesh like this once: almost totally broken apart and despite his sarcasm he had been just as terrified as the Gnat clearly was.

When she looked up, Pidge was staring at her intently with blue eyes gone to ice. "You don't know, do you?" he asked and his voice was just as cold as his eyes. "Or is it that you don't want to know?"

"He's been hurt..."

"All I had in the beginning was accusations and hearsay from the few people who dared to talk to me, so I didn't take their words to heart. Nitze's report was less coherent but he managed to help as best as he could. Thanks to him and the Crows, I was able to find the others we had lost touch with. I've had ten witnesses now, all terrified of that new group who are terrorizing the people in the South cities, but they were willing to help," Pidge said. "Alice, the Gnat told me that the man who did this to him, who might be responsible for what happened to our old contacts was..."

"Pidge, stop," Alice whispered, still staring at where the nurse had pulled the wheelchair back into the shadows.

"Alice, you know who it was."

"Stop it!" she all but shrieked, and she spun on her heel. Blindly and without any of her usual skill, she struck out at him but Pidge dodged the weak blow. Instead, he caught her by her shoulders and gave her a hard shake that rattled her teeth.

"It was Hatter, Alice! The Gnat, for all that he is, is not a liar. Alice, something happened to him!" Pidge insisted and she shoved at him but he didn't let go. Behind Pidge, Abel discreetly turned his head away from the scene they were making.

"He wouldn't! I know him, Pidge! He wouldn't do this!"

"The Hatter you know? No, he wouldn't," the tall man agreed. "But damn it, Alice, you have seen him on the brink before. Charlie told me how he was back then in the Taiga. Is this really so unbelievable? Is it so hard to believe that what was inside him has found its breaking point? That _he_ found his breaking point?"

His words struck her like a hard slap to the face and she stopped struggling, her fingernails digging into his arms. Pidge softened his voice to a whisper, aware that she was starting to understand him. "If he gave up, thinking that he was without you and without any chance of hope, and if Selena manipulated him, then he could be pushed to act... out of sorts," Pidge finished.

Abel shifted in his seat. "The Hatter family was always dangerous, Alice. For good reason and it has been that way for generations. What if all of this was because of him and what his family hid in his head?"

She looked at Pidge and he didn't say anything, only stared at her.

"It was a terrible price to pay for the Hatters, being such deep vaults of information as they were in the past. They had to always lay out traps and plans to prevent everything from swamping over their sanity. There is such a thing as knowing too much and even if his father trained into him how to control this flaw of their bloodline, Pidge is right. What we do for love can sometimes be what breaks us," Abel continued and Alice turned away from Pidge to look at him. Satisfied he had her attention, he gestured to the conservatory plants. "There is only one reason why they are coming further and further sound. What truly concerns me is that if they were able to get crucial information on developing their own conduits out of Wonderland from Hatter. Something his grandfather would have told him, because his grandfather was there when it was made. It may be that the only reason they kept him alive is that his mind is still resisting telling them everything. They still need him."

Alice stepped closer to him and unconsciously glanced at the Crows. They were staring at her again. "I don't get it. I sort of thought that having a conduit is a good thing; it connects our worlds, balances them," she thought aloud.

"When controlled, yes; Wonderland and your world have a balance that is in harmony. But left unchecked or controlled by sources who would twist it, the conduit warps Wonderland's own reality. During the reign of the old Queens, Wonderland was a far darker place and yet, before them, in times when the conduits were wild all over our lands, it was a place of a beauty and peace." He paused and reached into his pocket, drawing out another letter. He fiddled with its edges. "Unfortunately, the formula for the conduit is of my own devising. And only the Royals and the Dodo would know that. I was the one that the White Queen ordered to develop it, when I was just a young man and merely a cousin to the King of Hearts. I, like the Carpenter, had found something that the Royals wanted. In exchange for it, I was given Governor-ship of the South... but I thought that it was a mere exchange of goods."

He lifted a shaking hand that held the letter. "As it turns out, the real price was very very high to pay for one of my greatest achievements. It will be high once again, I'm sure."

It gave no relief to Alice that Pidge looked just as confused as she felt. He reached out and took the letter from Abel, scanning the spidery handwriting on its folded side. He looked back up, his brow furrowed.

"This is from Selena," he stated, and Abel nodded, leaning back in his chair. Pidge opened the letter and read it aloud, clearly paraphrasing, "She wants your utter surrender and that of the South. Declaration of safety for your family should you submit, banishment for your personal Quadrille and execution of any found as traitors. But she doesn't say how they would be found as traitors. But... why? Selena works for the Resistance, always has. The Quadrille may have been the Resistance's competitors but we did work to a common cause in the end."

"Could she be working for someone else?" Alice asked Pidge and he shook his head, his eyes darting to hers.

"That's the thing with some Resistance members. They became fanatic in their search for their supposed 'freedom' and she was tireless in that. Not to mention that she has enough grudges to bear against the entire populace of Wonderland. All the same, I don't think she would disobey the Resistance and Dodo. But I have been wrong before." Pidge turned the letter over and then folded it, handing it over to the Drawling Master. "So what are you going to do?"

"No point in going into this blind. I want to know what she has willingly destroyed most of the South for, in her search for me and for her revenge."

"Do they know where you are?" Alice questioned, wanting badly to read the letter but not knowing if she would like its contents.

"It will only be a matter of time. The Manor can only hide us from Hatter for so long and if she's set him on us, they'll be here soon," Abel said and Pidge exhaled, his eyes bright and troubled.

Not to be put off, Alice stepped to the table and touched the letter. "But he's never been this far south. Doesn't the Manor woods hide your home unless you want it found?"

"Unless certain circumstances arise, then yes, the Manor protects me and my family. But this specific set of circumstances have never arisen before and it may offer us only slight protection if he tracks us. I'd bet my fortune that the Snake has set Hatter on me deliberately, and likely using you, Alice, as a motivator. She's probably told him that I had a hand in your death and that he should kill me for revenge. Selena and I have had some... altercations in the past," Abel allowed and Pidge snorted.

"Knowing you, you likely tore a strip off her back and sent her back licking her wounds with just a few words," he commented, giving a half-smile.

Abel shrugged. "I'm only kind to ladies, and that creature hardly applies. It comes from her upbringing by Dodo. He created a tool for the Resistance that he took too much pride in warping."

Huffing in irritation, Alice didn't bother to open the letter like she had wanted to. "So what are you going to do then?"

"We go to have a chat with her. See if we can parley with her... or at least put an end to this foolish quest of hers," Abel said. "Failing that, we just get some information."

"You shouldn't be going," Pidge scolded. "It is bad enough your health isn't as good, but you're getting too old for all of this."

"She doesn't know that. I'm the bait in this, you know; if she thinks she can frighten me, her ego will get in the way and she will meet with us on neutral ground. The Singing Woods, for example; the trees there won't tolerate violence." Abel's eyes hadn't left Alice's face as he spoke.

"So Hatter will be there?" she asked, grabbing hold of Pidge's arm and looking at him imploringly.

"I doubt she'll risk having him in the open, Alice. Whoever broke him will try to keep him restrained until they want him turned loose again. Trapped in his own mind, I wager," he explained and she shook her head.

"I _know_ that he wouldn't do these things. That he wouldn't..." she insisted and he gave her a look just shy of condescending.

"You know? Alice, it may pain you to know this, but I knew him before you, for much longer than you have known him. He is capable of many things, good and bad, and not all of them I feel right in telling you. And what he had been capable of then, he is likely capable of now," he stated and when she snorted and tried to look away he grabbed her arm in a tight hold to keep her still. "Hatter, his whole family, has always been known to be capable of great darkness."

"But also capable of great good," Abel interjected to try to make Alice feel better. Pidge glared over at him, knowing what he was trying to do.

"Yes. That is true."

"I've seen him mad before, Pidge. He fought it," Alice snapped, wrenching her arm free.

"He fought it for you and his friends, most likely. And what if he has nothing to fight for? What do you give a man who has lost everything? Who has been fighting a battle for too long without rest? You offer him a way out and, with all his strength, Hatter is just a man," Pidge stated and Alice's eyes blazed with anger but he waved his hand. "I love him as a brother, Alice, but I carry no illusions about him. I do not want this to happen to him. I can think of no one who deserves it less but, Alice, this is his bloodline's own secret that they've suffered with for hundreds of years."

"And bloodlines in Wonderland are everything, no matter how dusty and twisted they are," Abel muttered, looking down at the letter beside him. Alice turned her eyes from Pidge's furiously blazing ones and looked at him. But the Drawling Master seemed to be lost in thought, fiddling with the worn edges of the letter.

The sound of faint mumbling made her glance at where the Gnat still sat, huddled in his wheelchair, as the nurse gave his bandages an adjustment. She took in his shadowy form, still seeing the broken lines of him and remembering the agony in his eyes. Alice shuddered and wrapped her arms around her middle, her heavy dressing gown suddenly giving her no warmth.

When she looked up, Pidge was still staring at her. The way he seemed to be examining her face unnerved her and she took a shaky breath, stepping away from them. She was aware of the eyes on her back as she went through the garden, ignoring the scratching of the thistles and thorns and not seeing the controlled beauty anymore. Feeling a flush of heat going up her face, she knew that she had to get away from the thick, damp air before she became sick.

* * *

Alice stepped out of the conservatory and into the hallway, stopping at the open window nearer to the balcony that ran the length of the north end of the Manor. She pushed the shutter open wider and leaned half out to suck in cold air, feeling the sting of it on her skin. Appearing like a black shadow, a single crow flapped down and landed, squawking at her. Its head turned this way and that, black eyes taking in its surroundings curiously.

Alice ignored it, leaning her head against the windowpane, and tried to think. There was so much that she had to consider and yet nothing came to mind of what she should do. Her mind was still stuck on Hatter's evident turn; had she lost him like Pidge had claimed? Everything they had been through, fought against so that they could stay together, and it suddenly felt like the very ground had fallen out beneath her.

She couldn't help but feel a few tears of pure frustration slip down from her eyes. The hot tears stung her now cold cheeks and she shut her eyes, squeezing them tightly. It didn't help to stop the tears and she didn't move to get out of the cold wind.

The door behind Alice opened and closed and she sniffed, wiping her hand hard across her cheek to get rid of the tear tracks. Without turning around, she knew who it was. There was a tense silence for a few moments and she had a hopeful few seconds that he would just leave her alone. But Alice felt a hand wrap around her shoulder and pull her around. Pidge stared down at her, looking concerned.

The pity in his eyes made her look away.

"I'm not used to seeing Oyster emotions. It is starting to make me think that us Wonderlanders are missing out on something," he admitted and she gave a watery laugh.

"Seems like most of Wonderland feels that way sometimes," she whispered. "And right now, I can't help thinking that this is my fault. That if he and I had been open with each other from the beginning... But I always put it off, finding out more about him, because I could see how it hurt him to remember it all. Maybe if I had just tried to push..."

She drew in a deep breath. "But then I could have lost him for that as well. It's not fair."

Pidge's arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders and he rested it there, trying to comfort her. Alice tensed under his hold, wanting to grieve for Hatter and not sure she could just yet. Not when in her heart she still believed that she could bring him back to her.

"Life isn't fair, Alice. Wonderland's version of life is even less so. It is a cruel place; beautiful and strange, but utterly cruel at times. But if this could have been spared for you, it should have been. You've been through too much already, judging by the stories about you."

She shook her head, leaning against the window frame and looking out. "And sometimes it seems like it is for nothing," she admitted. "How much could all be lost and I'm so helpless to do anything!"

Pidge turned her face to him and stared at her, looking oddly disappointed in her for giving up.

"Alice, I think of all the people here, you are not as helpless as you think. You've got strength and that is what is going to help you against all of this. I noticed it the first time we met and I won't let you forget that." Pidge stared at her, his thumb gently tracing the curve of her jaw and Alice stared back. Pidge was almost overwhelming with his height and the wall at her back made her feel more self-conscious. His gentle smile faded and she felt his grip shift until his fingers brushed over her earlobe. Alice stared, frozen by the look on his face, and she was suddenly not sure what he was up to.

She was still frozen when he bent and brushed his mouth over hers. There was a brief moment of curiosity that made her hesitate and then she was pushing him away with more than a little bit of force. He backed away from her as if he had been burnt, staring at her wide-eyed and going red with shame.

"Pidge..." she started and he shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Alice. I shouldn't have done that." He raked his hand through his hair and sighed. "Call it curiosity that kills me every time. Though I can see why Hatter fell in love with you, you aren't for me and I need to remember my bounds with you. It is hard though."

He gave her a shaky grin. "It's an unfortunate reaction to Oyster emotions, you know, and I apologize. It is no excuse."

Alice stared at him, feeling shaky. "Pidge, have you ever considered that maybe it is just you want what you can't have? I love Hatter, and I think you know how much I do." She sucked in a breath. "And even if I believed that he was lost, I wouldn't betray him. Not for you, not for anyone."

She backed away. "And he isn't. I won't believe that I've lost him. I'm lucky enough to call you friend but please don't do anything to ruin that."

He nodded abruptly but before she could continue, he was leaving. Pidge looked so utterly mortified at his own actions that any outrage she had felt at him was gone. As he disappeared around the corner and into the next corridor, Alice felt a sudden sense of pity for him because she was beginning to realize that, under his joking and aloof manner, was a very lonely man who did not know how to express much beyond surface emotions.

Staring after him, Alice gradually became aware that Abel was watching her from the doorway of the conservatory. "He's always been like that," he said once Pidge was gone from view. "It is in our family's nature to want sometimes what we should not have. It is when we get what we want that we tend to get into trouble."

"I think he wanted me because I'm Hatter's," she declared, twisting her fingers into a nervous knot. "But I can't be angry at him. Maybe flattered and a bit annoyed, but not angry."

"He only takes one warning, Alice; don't worry about a repeat of that scene. I admit to being surprised that he did what he did. He knows the risk he runs touching a Hatter's woman. Those men are notorious for protecting what is theirs, even if they at first seem uncaring, " Abel explained and Alice finally looked at him.

"So when do you leave to parley?" she asked and he jerked, knowing what she was really saying.

"You clearly think you are coming with us," he stated irritably. "I've not told your mother or Charlie. It would be best if you stay here."

"Why?" she snapped. "I know I am going. If Hatter is with them, then maybe, if he recognizes me, sees that I'm alive, I may be able to pull him free of what might have been done to him. He won't recognize you or Caryn, maybe not even Pidge. And he won't hurt me if something goes wrong."

"You are so certain of that?" Abel asked her incredulously. "Your blind faith in the Hatter may be your undoing, Alice. It is admirable but I find it rather foolish."

"Like you said, Hatter and I have an unspoken pact. I told him I would stay with him," Alice explained, "and I'm not about to let the Snake's manipulations take him from me."

She pushed away from the window and stepped toward the older man. He stared back at her, reading something in her eyes. He could see her determination not to be left behind and it was on his lips to refuse her just because of her pregnancy alone. But something else he saw in her eyes made him back down, something he rarely did, and he nodded.

"Two of my men have left already to inform Selena we wish to try to come to an agreement. Meanwhile, we'll leave at dawn's light. It will take us a day to reach the proposed spot and the Singing Woods will protect us, I know. Hopefully we can find a way to negotiate and bring your Hatter back to you. You'll have to find a horse and I'll being taking ten of my best and Pidge," he said. "It would be best if your mother doesn't know. I'll let Caryn handle that."

"She's not coming with us?" Alice questioned and he shook his head.

"I don't think my daughter would handle this well just yet," he said. "I'll feel better leaving her in charge of the Manor, caring for our refugees."

Alice thought it over, having thought Caryn would have wanted to come. She always just seemed to be there, in the thick of things. For some reason, the thought of being alone without any friends or family that she knew well made Alice blurt out, "I'll want Chesh with me."

"Cheshires are not to be trusted. Especially a known killer like that one," the Drawling Master said, clearly not about to negotiate on this point.

"He's magic and, even as cat, he can still use magic. If something happens... if we get separated, he can guide me. He's under a bargain and you've told me that promises hold heavy weight in Wonderland."

She had caught him in his own logic and she knew it when he rolled his eyes.

"Very well. Get ready and we ride at dawn," he ordered and turned away from her, disappearing back into his conservatory. Alice watched the glass doors swing back shut and exhaled slowly as she turned back to the window. The crow on the window railing squawked at her again and she tipped her head on the side, seeing a faint shimmer go through his feathered body as moonbeams played over his feathers. Reaching out, she traced his wings with one finger and focussed hard. Her fingers began to glow and the crow began to change colour, going to a soft violet. Alice saw her own skin glowing and she exhaled again sharply. The wind of her breath seemed to push the violet colour from the bird's body so that he returned to black.

"Find your brothers," she whispered, "we'll need your help if something goes wrong."

She withdrew her fingers and the bird leapt off the ledge, spreading his wings and flying off into the forest. Alice watched him until he was a tiny speck in the distance over the trees, and she noticed the trees were shimmering in the moonlight. The ground rumbled and the Manor itself shuddered, a sign that its rooms were changing again, and Alice sighed, bracing a hand on the window.

Then she was off and running back to her rooms, determined not to be left behind. Determined that when she came back to the Manor after this meeting, Hatter would be with her.

 


	27. A Cold Call

Shrouded in thick mist and surrounded by large ruins of an old castle, the centre of the Singing Woods made for an almost ethereal backdrop. Riding nearer to the back of the Drawling Master's personal guard, Alice had found herself comparing the sight of such an old place to the more massive Kingdom of the Knights. The change in scenery was welcome after miles of empty meadows and the open fields that the few farmers were too frightened to actually till due to the unrest in the South. Alice had seen very few people during the ride, and those that did had seemed so frightened that they didn't venture far from their doorways. It was as if they were all terrified that they might be attacked at any second and eventually Alice learned not to look anywhere else but ahead.

They had been riding for such a long time, with minimal amounts of rest, that her legs felt numb from the thigh down and her head was starting to ache. But she had been determined to not make any complaints about such travel.

She figured that it was worth it though when she saw the ruins and knew that the long ride was over.

Almost immediately, her eyes scanned the ruins and the fallen trees that were scattered through the clearing. Seeing nothing through the mist, she clenched her fingers tight around the pommel of her saddle and started to push herself up a bit. The heavy coat and hood she had been given shrouded most of her from the cold twilight air, and she reached up to take off the hat.

"I'd leave it on, if I were you," Chesh's voice was silky in her ear and Alice jumped.

"Will you warn me when you do that? I keep forgetting you're there," Alice demanded lowly and his head finally appeared, rolling upside down in slow motion.

"Forgive me. But one would think of a month's living in a cupboard, eating nothing but less than savoury scraps and starving for fresh air, would allow me some allowances," he answered, his green eyes glinting at her. Alice eyed him.

"The weight loss helps my shoulders, so I'm not that upset about it," Alice retorted and his grin appeared, the white teeth making it look like his head was split almost in half. "I'm just trying to see what's around us."

Chesh's tail brushed over her neck. "Out of sheer curiosity — which in itself has cost me several lives over the course of Wonderland's existence — do you not think that revealing yourself may be a poor choice?"

"What do you mean?" She clicked to her horse and began to steer the old gelding behind the others. "If Hatter is here..."

"Now you see, if I was this Snake," Chesh continued on as if she hadn't spoken, "I would build up my resources. If it so happened that Hatter was one of those, I would make his strength his weakness and his pain. Seeing how he feels about you, and for a Wonderlander that is rather incredible, I'd cripple him with that."

She couldn't think of a response to his explanation and couldn't even respond to his obvious distaste for Hatter's emotions.

"Besides, how pleased do you think she will be to see you or Pidge alive?" Chesh insisted. "So I suggest that you and Pidge both just watch for now. Rather than goad her into doing something... stupid and violent right from the start."

Alice nodded and a shadow passed her suddenly, drawing her attention to Pidge. He had ridden up beside her without her noticing and he discreetly kept his eyes from meeting hers. He hadn't been able to look her square in the eye yet and Alice found that oddly discomforting. She needed him as her friend and it didn't feel like he was there for her right now when he seemed so edgy around her.

Then suddenly his expression changed as he seemed to paint on a wry smile. He reached out and ruffled Chesh's furry head roughly, causing the cat to hiss in anger. Still smiling, Pidge looked at Alice.

"The flea-bag isn't wrong. We might end up provoking something we won't be able to handle yet, especially if she sees you right away," he pointed out.

"Not you?" she challenged and he shrugged.

"Of the two of us, I think Selena more severely underestimates you, Alice. If she sees I survived, she'll be shocked but not too much; it might even make her a bit unbalanced. I think we should save the shock of your survival for a little bit into the meeting, don't you?" Pidge asked and she chuckled, adjusting the heavy hood of her coat to it fell closer around her face.

"Remind me to never get on your bad side."

"And vice versa. I've seen you do some skilled fighting," he countered, winking at her and for a moment they were back in their comfortable friendship with one another. He nudged his horse with his heels and moved back to where the Drawling Master sat on his own old horse at the head of the group. Alice watched him, fingering the buttons on her coat.

"You know, I think he still has something for you but I wonder if it isn't just because of his rivalry, or what he calls friendship, with Hatter," Chesh commented and Alice shot him an irritated look.

"Can you feel anything about this place?" she asked and he took the red herring willingly.

"Most of the trees in the Singing Woods only sing at dawn, when the sun first hits it. Peaceful enough, a place that used to be a graveyard of sorts, But it is a place I wouldn't kill a mouse in. From what I remember, this place is almost sacred compared to the rest of the South. People come here to find solace and inspiration," he explained and she felt him kneading her shoulders with his claws.

"Do they find it?" Alice whispered, a bit awed when she heard the faint humming of the trees nearest to her. The melody was oddly comforting.

"Occasionally... but sometimes it is a matter of death and rebirth. Old philosophers would often place the idea that the South is steeped in the idea of mysticism, while the North is mostly about intellectual growth. But really, you shouldn't be worried about right now. History lessons are best saved for later, I think," Chesh admonished and he fully appeared. Leaping from her shoulder to the front of her saddle, he looked like a sphinx as he took in their surroundings. "I dislike the South. Give me the Taiga any day."

"If there is any of it left by the time we get back North," Alice said to herself and at his curious look she shook herself from her thoughts. She noticed that the men they had travelled with were starting to separate into semicircle and she moved her horse over behind the thicker part of the group. The agreement she had with the Drawling Master was that she would stay out of sight and for once she was about to follow his instructions.

Pidge, she noticed, was doing something similar. He was wearing a low fitting cap and had hunched his shoulders up to his ears, and strangely it seemed to change him when he turned his collar up over the back of his neck. He looked little more than a bent old man from the distance and she had to admit that if she hadn't known where he was, she wouldn't have noticed. Self-consciously, she sunk down into her own saddle and waited.

The silence was broken by a loud bang and whistle, the sort that would reverberate from a gun. It sent the horses into a spooking mess and Alice clung to her saddle, feeling Chesh leap up from the pommel. As she reined her gelding around, she saw him skittering up one of the ruins and perching on the grey stone, eyes on the surrounding hillsides. No one else had seen him apparently, as most of Abel's men were cursing.

"We're sittin' ducks here!" one man hissed near Alice. "The bullet hit Lyon!"

"Likely the boss knows something is up," another answered and when he turned his head Alice saw a piece of the ruin explode as another bullet whizzed past. There was a man clutching at his arm, blood from a graze in his shoulder leaking through his fingers. Narrowly dodging another bullet, Chesh jumped from his part of the ruin up to a higher place and Alice looked away, hoping to see through the panicking horses.

The Drawling Master was still sitting astride his old piebald gelding, looking completely unfazed by the commotion around him and adjusting his coat sleeves back up around his elbows. Alice found the sight comforting and yet so completely disarming that she couldn't think to move. They were in danger, weren't they? She had almost felt the whizz of a bullet go by her shoulder and she couldn't see anyone.

Suddenly, the clearing trees seemed to wave their thick branches frantically in the air and everyone around Alice froze as a loud shriek ripped through the air. She quickly dismounted, worried that her horse would panic again, and tilted her head back as something rose overhead.

She gaped, seeing that it was a man wrapped in leaves and vines and being swung overhead like a rock in a sling. He was screaming as he was swung and there was a strange accompaniment, like someone humming a merry tune, and Alice squinted through the growing darkness. The vines were attached to one of the taller trees that surrounded the clearing and they waved back and forth furiously, snapping with a loud crack.

"Group up!" Pidge shouted and Alice found herself being pulled in the middle of the group with the horses on the outside of the circle. Pidge pressed in beside her and the Drawling Master went to the other side, both men staring up at the man being swung like a toy.

"Shouldn't you help him?" Alice demanded, her voice almost drowned out by the screams and hums.

"He's not one of mine," Abel said in an absentminded way, looking around.

"Nor mine," Pidge agreed. He narrowed his eyes, almost in awe of what he was seeing. "He's wearing something from the North. You can tell."

Alice stared incredulously, not caring that he wasn't dressed in the more regency style of the southerners. "Help him!"

Her words snapped Pidge from out of the mini-trance he had been in and they stared at one another for a moment. The man's screams became hysterical and they both turned to see that another vine had wrapped around his waist while one remained encircled around his shoulders.

"Grandfather," Pidge said and reached across Alice to pinch the old man out of his stupor. Abel jerked, surprised, and glared at Pidge. "Help him."

Glancing up at the screaming man and then back at them, both Pidge and Alice could see that Abel's eyes had taken on a stony look void of any feeling or pity. "It's out of my hands now, children. I don't interfere with this place, I'm not allowed to," he explained dully and then tipped his head on the side. "Though Alice may not want to watch this."

Alice stared at him, inwardly furious about his callous attitude .

"What does he mean?" she asked of Pidge instead and he winced.

"Means that he's the one who shot at us and hit the Lyon and the trees don't take kindly to blood and violence," he responded and he put his hand over hers. "Alice, don't watch this."

Sensing that they were talking about a man's imminent death, Alice felt a flush of fresh anger at the cruel brutality of Wonderland. Her skin started to brighten and almost instantly Chesh reappeared on her shoulders. He dug his claws hard into her skin and she gasped at the shock of pain and felt an oozing of blood.

"Do not give the game away. You're being watched by whoever sent that man to attack us. This particular Wonderlander deserves this for obeying someone's rules over the older Wonderland," Chesh's silky voice warned. "Calm down and turn your eyes to the ground."

Alice took a deep breath and her glow immediately receded as she forced herself to calm down. She turned away and met Abel's blank look before dropping her eyes to focus on the ground between them.

Pidge watched her, relieved that she had turned away, though he couldn't help but look away up at the suspended man. One of the vines began to tighten around his waist and his face turned purple as his air was cut off. The Drawling Master's men all whispered amongst themselves but Pidge was too entranced to tell them to be quiet. The vines were simultaneously tightening on either side of the man and Pidge heard him scream one more time before the vines gave a sudden snap. It was so clean that there was no spray of blood or bone as the man was torn into halves and then quarters, the trees' humming lowering in pitch. The vines tossed the remains into the air and one of the other trees shuddered, a faint blue light shining out of it and around the remains. They were incinerated instantly and Pidge blanched at the sight of such simple natural power.

When he looked at Abel, his grandfather's gaze was surprisingly nonchalant. "I'd hate to think what it would do to me if I had interfered," Abel commented casually and looked up at the vines which were still hovering in the air. They descended quickly, pushing aside his own horrified men until they came to rest just before Abel. He reached out and turned Alice around and she lifted her head, blinking in shock.

The vines had lifted so that the tips were on level with Abel's face and the ends opened slowly until small, bright yellow eyes were revealed.

"Thank you," Abel said in a friendly way and the vine's eyes blinked. "We follow your decree of non-violence here."

"But they... it... this place killed him," Alice started and Abel nudged her hard to keep her quiet. But the vines had heard her and twisted around to look at her. They came so close that she had to turn her own head away, feeling the slimy slither of them going up her face. Chesh hissed on her shoulder. The faint humming came again and Abel cleared his throat.

"She's an Oyster named Alice. She's yet to learn our rules here," he offered and the vines slithered away from her, pausing to look at Pidge. The trees hummed again and Abel turned to look at them. "Have you seen a group of people headed this way?"

The eyes stared at Alice again and then the vines slowly turned around her, so that their leaves brushed her hair. She resisted the urge to shudder, smelling blood on the vines, and instead she watched as the vines pointed to the embankment to their left. The 'group' Abel had asked about was at least fifty men standing in a half-circle around the clearing and he sighed.

"Right." Abel turned to look at the vines and he bowed to them formally. "Thank you. Please keep watch if you will."

The vines unwrapped from their place around Alice and as they went she felt something dropped into the bodice of her shirt. A tiny blue tulip with an emerald green centre had been left and she picked it up, frowning at it.

"I'd keep that. Singing Woods don't often leave things behind that aren't useful at some point," Chesh said, still sounding worried. Alice, more bewildered than ever, tucked the tiny flower into her pocket and looked up. The Drawling Master had moved out to the head of their group, Pidge still almost hidden from view and she followed suit, pressing close to a burly older man. He looked at her with pale red eyes from beneath a mop of curly white-blond hair and grinned.

"Boss told us to keep you hidden for a while, lass, so you just stay right next to old Alicorn, understand?" he ordered kindly and she nodded, slipping into place beside him.

* * *

"I'm far too old for this," the Drawling Master muttered to himself as he put himself in full view of the group surrounding them. "Far too old and what's the likelihood I'll want to follow through? Och, not much of a likelihood."

He looked up at the men on the embankment but couldn't see anyone he really recognized from either the old Resistance or even as South defectors. Many bore the weathered, furious look of Lake Prisoners or mercenaries and that made him more than a little uneasy. The only slight consolation was the appearance of the Singing Wood's power. If the trees were not pleased with this group, it meant they may protect his own. Though he wasn't about to cling to such a hope.

Realizing that this other group was waiting, he cleared his throat again and spoke clearly, his voice naturally carrying through the ruins, "Well? Where's that serpent of an assassin then? Or is she pulling a Dodo and hiding behind her own men like the very Royals he once claimed to hate?"

His goading words had the anticipated effect and almost instantly a small woman slipped through the ranks of men, murder clear on her face. For such a thin woman, she was able to exude quite the fury that seemed to vibrate from her very body. Snake could have, Abel admitted, been a beautiful woman but there was an almost aura of violence and bloodlust about her gave an ugliness he doubted any magical mirror in Wonderland would be able to hide .

And considering he had once crafted the most magical of them, that was certainly saying something.

"Well, if it isn't Miss. Selena Serpena, daughter of the old Governor's son if I recall correctly," Abel said. He looked her up and down, a sly grin appearing. "You thankfully don't look like him."

"Still a snippy, arrogant old man I see. Even in a hopeless situation, you still try to be in control," she snapped back and her black eyes shone with rage that he had reminded her of her own unfortunate family.

"I do like to have hope that even the most difficult of situations is not beyond my control. Keeps me feeling young." He took in the twitchiness to her, something that was almost more advanced than was normal in the way her eyes darted from side to side and her tongue kept flicking to the corner of her mouth, and he noticed that she looked physically drained. Her thinness was almost sickly, the look of someone being pushed to exhaustion time and time again. "You most definitely should try it."

"I didn't come here to discuss my looks," she answered and he grinned.

"You should. A woman in your profession is prone to losing them early."

"You wrote saying you wished to parley," Selena retorted instead, not taking his bait. "So. Here we are. The Woods insists on our peace, so we shall not attack. Yet. So I suggest you make this good."

"You've razed some of the South for whatever reason you had. I know how you hated the South but I did not think that your hatred was that... venomous," Abel responded, his voice losing its playfulness at the memory of the Manor's newest flood of refugees.

"I have my reasons and my orders." Her smile grew nasty, her white teeth gleaming. "So, what would you offer?"

"What would you take?" Abel countered and her head tipped on the side, eyes going over his men. From beside Alicorn, Alice could have sworn that Selena's eyes rested on her for a moment but then it seemed like she was merely thinking since her gaze went up to the night sky again.

"Rumour has it that you have an Oyster living with you. The dead Alice's mother." Selena took a few steps to her left. "I want her. In exchange, your men will go free and we will leave the South."

"I suppose my going with you is part of that bargain?" Abel questioned and she smiled.

"For only a few miles, so that we can learn what it is in you and how you manipulated the conduits," Selena agreed.

"You'd be surprised how well I hold up to torture by Northerners, Snake." He waved his hand carelessly as he spoke but his brown eyes were going over her men as they came a bit closer. With the eye of an experienced soldier and spy-master, he picked out who was strong and who was loyal, and who were close to abandoning the tiny army they had become part of.

"And you'd be surprised how effective our own resources can be; especially since our newest additions," she informed smoothly and Abel stepped back a bit, eyes on her face intently. "You have no idea what I am capable of, Abel, to get what I want and what I am ordered to get."

"On the contrary," Pidge spoke suddenly and pushed his cloak hid down, "you might find him very well informed."

He stepped out into full view and from her vantage point Alice could see that Selena had paled. Her eyes had widened to almost black pits within her thin face and her fingers pressed up against her throat. She looked deeply shocked and yet there was some other emotion lingering in her face, one that was too guarded to be certain what it was. On Alice's shoulders, Chesh growled something inaudible and then leapt from her to the saddle of one of the horses to get a better look.

"Pidge," Selena whispered and her voice suddenly had a strange tone, mixed with longing and loathing. The woeful look on her face was gone in an instant as he approached her, stepping closer than the Drawling Master had. "You survived the fall. How... interesting."

Her eyes went over the group before her and Alice dropped her head, leaning into Alicorn to appear like an injured man.

"You seem to forget how well I know the South, Selena. You didn't think I'd know what lay beneath that trap of yours? You're not strong enough to mask the rabbit hole and you don't have the knowledge my own family has of it," Pidge answered. She huffed pettily and looked away. Pidge came closer still and reached out to brush his fingers over her cheek. "Selena."

There was a faint tenderness in his voice that startled the others around him and even Chesh perked up.

"Why are you doing this?" Pidge continued and her black eyes darted frantically away from him.

"I do what I must, what I've been trained to do," she said, sounding like a child reciting a lesson. Pidge's fingers tightened into a fist and then dropped to his side.

"What did Dodo do to you, lessons or otherwise, to let you think that killing innocents is what we were trained to do?" he asked, the lilt in his voice thickening. Her eyes snapped shut and she pulled away from him.

"Innocents? Where was the peace and the accolades for doing what we did? None! The King had some of us hunted to the ground for our double dealing; during the Red King's reappearance he rejected us and made us all look like fools! In just a year we've become almost relics of a time everyone has forgotten."

"Selena," Pidge warned and she glared at him.

"How you survived doesn't matter, Pidge. You died to me years ago when you went back to the Quadrille side," she snapped. Turning to the Drawling Master, who looked suddenly very old, she glared at him. "What is it to be?"

"You'd destroy Wonderland for nothing more than vengeance?" he asked wearily and she snorted in her laughter.

"Please, this goes far beyond that. My vengeance doesn't matter though I was finally able to rectify some of the past hurts done to me. That precious Oyster died, leaving a very valuable tool behind." She turned back to Pidge. "And he did break, so very sweetly. It has been just like old times... though I admit his lack of... interest in my own offerings has been a slightly bitter pill to swallow. But I can have my thrills in other ways. Who knows? Perhaps he'll kill her Oyster mother and what an interesting turn of events that will be, won't it?"

Selena's words were like tiny knives being driven into Alice's resolve to keep quiet and hidden. She felt a swarm of white-hot rage pool in her belly and try as she might to stop herself, she felt it almost flow out her very fingers. Alicorn shouted when he felt something hot burn through the toes of his shoes but the girl beside him was gone. The Cheshire Cat had tried to jump back to her but he was left scrambling on the ground, grumbling to himself about stubborn humans.

If Selena had been shocked to see Pidge, there was no doubt that seeing Alice stalking up to her in full-blown fury left her almost shaking in fear and awe. The sight of the brunette, hooded in black and looking ready to kill, made Selena retreat several steps and even Pidge moved out of the way when Alice didn't pause to look at him. She kept walking forward until Selena stopped retreating and her eyes shone like blue ice, rooting the other woman to one spot.

"You... you're alive," Selena stuttered. "No, that's not right."

Her eyes raked over Alice from head to toe, as if she was convinced that the other woman was about to fade from view like a ghost.

"You should be dead."

"How can you do this?" Alice asked, her voice low but deadly. Selena's jaw worked and she looked from Alice to Pidge and Abel, and then back again. It took her a moment to find her voice again.

"You survived. That... can't be. The hole only accepts those with Wonderland blood."

"Then your brief flash of intuition about me wasn't clear enough. How. Can. You. Do. This?" Alice repeated and under the heavy folds of her coat she pressed her hand against her slightly rounded belly. She knew fully well why the rabbit hole hadn't killed her.

Selena recovered slightly from her shock and tried to recover her snide attitude. "Because I can."

"Hatter once told me that you had some redeeming qualities, that you were not as bad as you seemed. I don't see any sign of anything worth saving in you," Alice hissed and the Snake flinched. The insult had hit her deeply though she tried to hide it. In a way it worked to her favour; it allowed her to recover more of her wits.

"Please, Alice. What kind of reunion will this be if you toss little girl insults my way?" Selena questioned in false amusement.

"Fine." Alice took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice was cracking in her anger. "You, being the heartless bitch you seem to be, knew what losing me could do to Hatter. You wanted something from him and you probably got it. You've used him; he trusted you, in some strange, hopeful way, and you don't care. Now you want to use him again to threaten the very people who have kept me safe. I don't care what kind of parley you and Abel strike, I want him."

"You and all of Wonderland it seems desire the Hatter." Selena twirled a strand of newly dyed black-streaked hair around a long finger, looking almost childlike in her manner. "Hatter seems to be of value to everyone these days. He's like a puzzle you just have to try to solve, though you always seem to be missing a key piece."

Her eyes bore into Alice's, some of her confidence coming back when she saw Alice's increasing worry. "Would you like to know what pieces we removed from him instead?"

"I'm not about to let you destroy him," Alice stated firmly and Selena gave a bitter laugh.

"And who is to say that we haven't already? That he'd want to be with you?" she pointed out. "You think that he isn't useful now, after we've broken him?"

"I know him. He's not broken," Alice insisted. "Hatter's too strong for that."

"Perhaps. Though he has retained some usefulness after that initial delving." The grin she gave was cold. They stared at one another, Selena's black eyes almost hypnotizing in their intensity and Alice's still so cold and shining that she seemed ready to rip out the other woman's throat with her bare hands.

"He's been most useful, Alice. And all it took was a little push," Selena whispered, lowering her voice so no one else could hear. "After all these years, he's finally worth something."

She couldn't help it, Alice saw red and slapped the other woman across her cheek so hard that her own palm stung. Selena's head rocked to the side and she clutched her cheek, whipping her head back around in shock to stare at the younger woman. The strength behind that blow, even when Alice was obviously still a little weak, had stunned Selena. Alice glared at her, ignoring the throbbing pain in her hand, and came to stand toe to toe with the Snake.

"You've tried to take everything from me. I won't let you do this," Alice hissed and Selena gave her a terse smile.

"And you seem to think you have a choice in this all?" she whispered back and she looked at her curiously. "It has been over a month, Alice and you've grown just a bit. Perhaps you have that killer instinct in you after all."

"I think we should try to see if I do, particularly when it comes to you of all people," Alice answered and the Snake's eyes narrowed.

"Killer instinct does tend to come out in the South," she stated with a strange emphasis and her head tilted to the side. Her black eyes slid away from Alice's to the side and out of reflex, Alice followed her gaze. The men around Alice had all backed away at her approach save for a few, and they were scattered around the embankment and ruins. One of the men leaning against an old stone pillar was apparently half-asleep, his lank, dreaded hair hanging into his lightly bearded face. The only sign that he was a little bit awake was the way he kept flipping a shard of glass from finger to finger, occasionally stopping to adjust his old coat around his arms. But it was the horse at his shoulder, looking just as depressed and uninterested in their presence as her rider, that caught Alice's attention. The chestnut coat and the white blaze that ran down its face, interrupted only by a chestnut dot just a bit off the centre, was familiar and Alice stepped to the side around Selena. Pidge and the Drawling Master both stared as Alice approached the mare.

"Guinevere?" she whispered and the mare's ears flickered though her head didn't raise. Alice took hold of her bridle and lifted the gentle head a bit and she recognized the warm brown eyes, though the skinny mare looked miserable. Running her hand down her neck, Alice turned around, hoping to see Hatter in the group of men to her right. She had no fear of them grabbing her, not when the Singing Woods seemed to condemn violence. None of them were looking at her, attention divided between the Snake and the ruins behind her.

"What's broken every time it's spoken? Secrets. Too many secrets," a low, troubled voice whispered behind Alice and she closed her eyes. Though the voice lacked the thick North accent she had become accustomed to, she could still recognize it because it was a voice she loved. A voice she could still hear even in her dreams. The pure agony in the words and that familiar riddle, one she had heard in the Taiga so long ago, made a fresh pang of pain go through her.

She turned around slowly and stared at the man who she had so carelessly walked by. He was still leaning heavily against the ruin, but his head had tilted back so that he could feel the faint drip of water falling from the pillar's upper edges on his face. The familiar lines of his profile made Alice feel excited and she felt Guinevere shiver against her shoulder. It was as if the mare was not as comforted by Hatter's presence as Alice was.

"Hatter?" she asked, barely able to keep her voice from breaking in her eagerness. His head tilted as if he had heard her and then he was shaking it back and forth, rubbing at his temple in irritation She released Guinevere's bridle and slid under her neck, trailing her fingers through the flaxen mane as she went.

She stared at him as she approached and all around it almost felt like the very trees were holding their collective breath. Hatter's face was gaunt and almost grey, a still angry wound scratched from his earlobe and down his exposed neck. Chewing into her lower lip, Alice came closer, still whispering his name though he didn't react to her. She could see that his hair, once so wild and always standing on all ends, had fallen flat just below his ears and was starting to form small dread locks around his bearded cheeks. This look to him brought a foreignness that she wasn't sure that she liked.

"Twist it, bend it, never ends till you snap it," Hatter muttered, shaking his head and lowering his chin almost to his chest. Alice could see him twisting his two index fingers into knots now and she realized that he hadn't actually heard her nor had he seen her approach.

"Hatter?" she tried again as she came closer. The nearly hysterical urge to run into his arms and be comforted by him was overwhelmed by the sudden instinctive caution that she felt as he shifted from heel to heel. The excited reunion she had anticipated seemed to fizzle and fall flat, and Alice moved around Hatter carefully. She suddenly felt cold beside him, as if his own body was somehow chilling hers, and there was an actual physical agony radiating from him.

"Hatter, it's me," Alice whispered, coming around so that she stood before him. "Hatter, love..."

She cupped his cheek, feeling the cold skin under rough prickle of his beard against her fingers. He was trembling and his eyes were unfocussed as he stared at the ground between them, making it so that she couldn't read his expression. His mouth firmed into a hard line as he lifted his hand slowly, as if it hurt him to do so. The tips of his fingers brushed over her face and Alice took his hand in hers, pressing her cheek into his palm.

"Alice," he said, his voice dropping but the way he spoke her name made her heart bang hard against her chest.

Something was missing in the way he said her name. Not in a way that a lover might but instead he said it with unmistakable pain and hopelessness.

"Hatter, it's me," she insisted.

Hatter let his fingers trace over the curve of her cheekbone and down her face to her neck, and there they stilled, cupping her gently. His fingers were clammy and ice cold, fluttering against her skin as if he were trembling. With a suddenness that shocked Alice, the grip tightened around her throat to iron. He whirled her about his own body, almost slamming her into the ruin that was behind him. The excruciating pain in his grip made her gasp but after a brief moment his hold loosened just a bit so that she could breathe with some struggle. Over his shoulder, Alice could see Pidge ready to move to help her and she waved her hand at her side to keep him from starting something. Frightened as she was, she was more terrified of the consequences of the vines and the Singing Woods. At least, she was until she looked back at Hatter again and she shrank back at the sight of him.

His eyes had turned from the dark brown she had always known to a deep forest green, which changed his face drastically and made him seem more forbidding. Hatter tilted his head on the side, taking in her face with the analytical look of a child inspecting a bug. His expression changed, became colder and angrier, and she gasped again when his fingers flexed around her throat. The stones at her back dug into her painfully and she squirmed.

"You're not real," Hatter stated, his monotone voice foreign and uncaring at the pain he caused her.

"I'm real," Alice whispered. "I swear, Hatter. You can feel me. I'm alive!"

His head shook and his other hand lifted to brace over her head. "You're not real. My Alice is dead. And I don't do well with phantoms."

Selena slid up beside them, leaning into the ruin alongside Alice. "Sad, isn't it Hatter?" she asked and she moved to lean against his back. Her mouth lifted to his ear and Alice saw him twitch, as if her vicinity bothered him. "They're using ghosts to haunt you."

Hatter's head twitched to the side and his eyes closed, as if some inner debate was going on inside of him. He didn't actually appear to know that Selena was beside him, whispering in his ear.

"Hatter please," Alice whispered, barely able to speak around the crushing hold he had on her throat.

"You dream about her death, know how the Drawling Master caused it and Pidge was likely in on it," Selena continued, her voice so soft that Alice had to strain to hear her. "You know the only way to end this is to get rid of this illusion they have crafted over some other woman's face."

Alice's eyes locked with Hatter's, but even though she stared and pleaded mutely with him, she could sense that he wasn't actually seeing her. Then suddenly, something cleared in his vision, and Alice felt like in return his eyes were pleading for her to be real, to be alive. But she knew that something must have been done, tortured into him, to believe her dead, to keep believing that she wasn't real. It was all over his expression.

Then the look was gone, replaced by that coldly calculating yet brilliantly bright mad light she had seen once before and she knew that Pidge and the Drawling Master were right. Hatter was lost in his madness.

His grip lessened on her throat but that didn't ease the threat of him leaning against her. Selena slipped off and his head twitched to the side again. Alice lifted a hand and slowly put it over Hatter's wrist. He flinched and recoiled from her touch, as if the rasp of her skin on his was too much to bear and his hand dropped. Alice remained frozen against the ruins, not daring to move and barely able to breathe. His eyes were half-shut and he turned away from her, grabbing hold of Guinevere's bridle. The mare tossed her head but followed him obediently away into the fog, her steps almost dragging up the hillside and Hatter seemed just as slow and despondent.

Alice stared after him, unable to move or react. It felt like someone had punched her, forced the air out of her lungs, and she started to slide down the ruin, her knees feeling weak. Her throat still burned from the harsh pressure of his fingers and she could feel the faint bruising already beginning. It was a harsh reminder of how he had lost control in the Taiga and hurt her then, though it had been unintentional.

This, for all she could see, had been intentional.

Her knees grew weak and she lost her balance, the scrape of stone on her back as she sank down not even penetrating the numbness she felt.

Pidge was grabbing her by her arm before she could go all the way down and he supported her after him down the hill. Alice couldn't see anything in her way, tripping as she moved, while her mind still reeled from what had happened. Abel turned to watch, seeing how grey and weak she looked. He had thought, hoped and prayed, that her emotions and the power it gave her would have been able to give her strength to pull Hatter back. But even from the distance he had seen how her fear and instant grief had drained her and it was an unsettling sight.

"Well, well, this has certainly been an interesting meeting, hasn't it?" Selena asked snidely, reappearing just behind Abel. He turned abruptly on his heel and glared at her.

"One could say that. You clearly underestimated the Oyster's will to survive," he said. She shrugged and looked to where Hatter had disappeared, seeing the two figures following him. Her black eyes flickered back to the Drawling Master and to the girl still trying to catch her breath.

"And you likely overestimated the power she held over the Hatter. He knows where your home is and yet, he's never been there before. How is that possible?" she questioned and he blanched. "Ah, old secret I suppose. You can likely read what I'm thinking, can't you old man?"

"I won't turn over an Oyster for you to kill. I know what this will result in," Abel answered, not raising his voice but there was a threat there that made Selena back up a step.

"Then we'll destroy your family and your home, until we get what we want." She grinned and then looked at Pidge. He straightened from where he stood over the still shocked Alice and approached her with the wariness of a harassed cat. "It's not too late, Pidge; you can still join us and avoid being killed."

"It was too late the day you asked me to join you," Pidge answered and he came close to her. His head dropped a bit. "It's not too late for you, Selena. Stop this now, and leave the South to my grandfather. But if we can come to agree on anything, at the least give her back her Hatter."

Whatever softening had started in Selena ended abruptly and her eyes narrowed into tiny black slits. "How deeply you've come to care for the Oyster, Pidge. I'm disappointed." She leaned close. "I wonder how worthy your protection will be in the Manor when Hatter finally succumbs to the rest of his madness and kills her. The only thing stopping him was the Singing Woods this time and their power ends at their border. Don't think we're turning back now."

Pidge stepped back from her. "We'll fight you to the death."

"I look forward to it," she sniped and then looked at the Drawling Master. "Go back to your little house, Drawling Master, and make peace with the knowledge that you've killed more people through your arrogance."

She stood still, not moving, as Pidge grabbed Alice up in his arms and put her back on her horse. Selena remained standing with the grim air of an executioner until all of the Drawling men were riding out of the clearing, leaving her and her group with the humming trees. Braver than the others, Tot approached her but kept his eyes averted.

"What now?"

"Send word back to the City that we'll be bringing the conduits back. Dodo will be pleased with this turn of events, I'm sure." She turned on her heel and looked at the men and women who made up her group of mercenaries. "We'll move on to the Manor. Destroy anything that gets in our way. I want the Drawling Master and the Oyster mother kept alive; kill the others."

"What of the Hatter?" Tot asked and Selena smiled.

"Have the Doctors increase his torture and then increase the number of dreams where killing the Alice-illusion eases his pain. We'll let him have full-rein in the Manor to do as he likes, so long as he kills her." Selena noticed Tot's confusion and the vicious look she had merely deepened. "I want him to realize the moment her hot blood is on his hands that he has killed his precious lover for real."

She waved her hand dismissively. "It will likely fragment his mind completely and he'll be no real use then. Mad people are hard to control and he has caused a lot of trouble already in killing some of my own men in resisting it. We'll put him out of his misery then, like a broken animal."

 


	28. The Concealed Card

"We'll need to leave here quickly," declared Abel's senior advisor Alicorn, who was looking ghost-like in the muted light of the Drawling Manor's library. "At the very least, for the sake of people we're trying to protect."

There were murmurs of agreement from the others in the room: men who had served just as long as he had in the South Quadrille. Caryn and Abel glanced at one another but said nothing though their concern was obvious about the two Oysters in their company. Caryn looked for Carol and had to hide a smile when she saw her. Sitting on the sofa, squashed between two fat security guards who likely smelled of grease and gunpowder, was Carol Hamilton, looking more than a little uncomfortable as they continued to jostle around to try to take up more room. Abel's most trusted men had clambered in without much regard for the regally decorated surroundings and had taken up much of the available space.

"I don't like abandoning my home to destruction, especially since that is the most inevitable conclusion. They'll try to burn this place to the ground to find us. This is all rather depressing, really," Abel muttered as he stared into the fireplace, swilling his tea back and forth in its cup. Standing beside him, Caryn gave her father a sympathetic look and then looked over at Charlie to see what he was up to. He had been silent for a while now. Her father's men were all chattering about amongst each other, arguing and joking to mask how shaken they all were that they could be attacked in just a matter of hours. But not once had Charlie chimed in and, in the short weeks she had come to know him, Caryn realized that that was an unusual thing.

Though when she saw him, Caryn wondered if unusual wasn't Charlie's real middle name.

"Just what is he doing?" she asked curiously. He was sitting cross-legged and humming to himself loudly while rubbing his temples with his fingers. Carol squeezed out from between the two men and stood with a relieved look on her face. Finally able to breathe properly, she glanced at Charlie before perching delicately on the edge of one of the old antique chairs that had been dragged in.

"He's meditating, I think," she answered and looked over through the thick crowd in the room. She could just make out the white hair of the Knight. "Charlie? You okay?"

Several of the men looked around and shrugged, one even reaching over to give Charlie a poke, but the old Knight didn't move at all, still humming in his out of tune way. Carol gave Caryn a defeated smile and then looked back up at the Drawling Master.

"I've been meaning to ask... is there ever going to be a way anyone from my world can get back there if we need to," she stated and he half-turned, eyes narrowing in speculation. Despite her age, Carol blushed like a scolded child and looked down at her slippers. "I'm just missing my home."

 _And I miss being safe,_ she thought to herself.

"She has a point. If we were able to get her home, Alice as well, then they'd lose that possibility of leverage," Pidge started as he took a seat on the arm of Carol's chair but his grandfather waved his hand to keep him from continuing.

"Good plan, but we'd have to sacrifice a great deal to create the conduits again. Then there is the possibility that the vats were likely emptied and transported so that they could manufacture something in the City. The Hearts didn't have all those scientists in their employ for nothing," Abel explained. "But even if we could get to them, we'd be risking their lives if we were off even a fraction of the formula was off. Not to mention how the mirror was made years ago. It would not be something I would experiment with right now when we're all being threatened with death."

Carol paled slightly and her fingers twisted into a nervous knot, her eyes not leaving her slippers. Walking behind the other woman, Caryn noticed that Carol actually seemed to grey a bit; she had obviously been hoping for some good news. Caryn cleared her throat noisily, enough to be heard over the bickering of the other men, and gave her father a meaningful look. He frowned back at her and she jerked her head at Carol so that he could see how upset the Oyster was.

Obediently, Abel gave Carol an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry to be such a bearer of bad news, my dear."

"It is not as if we ever get good news since this damn thing started, so why start now?" Pidge muttered and Caryn promptly gave him a smart smack on the back of his head that made him curse in pain.

"That sort of gloom and doom is not what we're needing right now, Alastair. Do knock it off, won't you?" she ordered and he winced appropriately, suddenly looking like a child under her scolding. His aunt did have a way of making him feel six years old and not in his thirties.

"Of course, aunt. Just hard not to..."

"Quit it," she warned, holding up her hand in warning, and when he looked up at her, he noticed she was staring at the large drapes that covered the far-side windows. He sullenly folded his arms across his chest, knowing what she was meaning and wanting to comment. But he glanced over and saw Carol's obvious worry and wisely quieted those thoughts.

"What would you have us do, Grandfather?" Pidge asked instead, clearly not enthused. He hadn't liked what he had seen in the Singing Woods but he wasn't sure how what to do know.

Abel was silent for a while, staring at each of his men one by one; men who were all silent now and focussed on him. Men he trusted: all had been trusted with plans and acts that were so deeply integrated into the South that he doubted anyone would ever know about all of them. But thanks to the recent turn of events, seeing the people he knew who had diverted out of fear had made him wonder just who he could trust. As he spun on his heel to look back at the roaring fire, he made a quick decision of whom he would keep close by and none of them were his own men. It was just too great a risk.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his daughter watching him carefully, trying to read him in that eerie way of hers. Knowing what she was doing, Abel merely nodded to her. Caryn's one eyebrow lifted up and she darted her eyes to the men in a questioning way. Abel nodded again and jerked his chin to the left, to where most of his men stood close to the doors leading to the corridor, and the meaning was clear.

His previous orders about what needed to be done were going to be upheld it seemed.

"Gentlemen, I believe that the Governor wishes that the refugees be gathered and removed to our previously arranged safe-houses along the shoreline of the Lake. They'll be taken in by nobles who've not chosen sides yet, the ones who we can trust, and hidden for now." She turned to them and gestured with one hand to the door, her long full skirt making a swishing sound as she came to the centre of the room. "Additional orders will come shortly. If you will excuse us?"

There was a command in her voice that hadn't been heard in some time from the Lady Drawling and the men moved sharply, scurrying from the room and muttering to one another as they went. Their main worry was what they would have to do to move well over two hundred people from the Manor in less than a few hours. There was so much to do and they were being entrusted with a rather delicate operation. There could be no second guesses or hesitation, they all agreed. It was going to have to be a quick move and they would have to do it quietly. However, the noise they began to make as they left the library was considerable and Caryn walked to the doors to slam them shut behind the pack of men.

When she turned back around, the stoic expression she had been wearing fell and she sighed, leaning against the door. "Have we done the right thing?" she asked, eyes on her father. Abel shrugged his shoulders and with a vicious grunt he threw his tea cup into the fire.

"I don't know. We lost our chance at bargaining with this group. I won't lead Selena's men to any of those safe houses but that takes away our own options. We'll need to go closer to the Metropolis, where some of my own men may be." He sighed and walked back around to the now vacant sofa, sinking into it gratefully. "I do hate to abandon my home."

He looked around the room with a wistful look that bordered on reminiscing and Caryn sighed. Leave it to her father to feel nostalgic at the wrong moment.

"We could stay and fight," she offered weakly.

"That would be all of us against... how many men? Would there be any chance of actually winning?" Carol asked and Pidge frowned but didn't answer. He didn't have to; they all knew the answer.

Charlie suddenly jerked out of his meditation, his humming suddenly coming to a wild halt while he was stuck on a high-pitched note. It caused everyone to jump and stare at him, and Charlie leapt to his feet noisily, nearly toppling over. His chain-mail and armour, never off him for very long, screeched as he whirled about on his heels and started to rub at his temples rapidly.

"Ah! The yonder felons are mere steps away from our ruination; fire and smoke have yet to rain down upon us!" he started and Carol rolled her eyes, unable to help it.

"Helpful."

Charlie dropped his hands. "Well, I thought it was," he admitted, looking a bit downcast.

"You're a few minutes behind, Charlie," Carol said, giving him a smile because she felt guilty about her sarcasm.

Abel sighed. "As I was going to say, we'd best leave as a group. The actual location perhaps won't be as important as avoiding everyone who might be an enemy."

"Location where? I thought all of Wonderland wasn't going to be safe for us," Carol pointed out and Pidge nodded.

"Especially if the Hatter's been released to destroy the last remnants of his old life," he said, voice softening. The thought was a disturbing one even as he looked around the room. Anytime someone had spoken of Hatter, he himself thought of the other Oyster in the room. "Where is Alice?"

Caryn frowned and adjusted her skirts again before walking further into the room. "She was here. I escorted her myself..."

"Alice? Honey?" Carol leaned to the side to see around Pidge. She was looking at the large bay windows where the heavy velvet drapes almost hid her daughter from sight. She could just see Alice's one slim leg peeking out from beneath the drapes but the black clothing she wore did make her blend with the shadows. It wasn't clear if she had heard a word of their arguing, and she had been so quiet for so long.

Alice had been silent since they had come back early in the afternoon in, disappearing into her rooms and then re-emerging freshly bathed but still quiet and very pale. Caryn had brought her to the library, hoping that the company of others would draw her out. But she hadn't shown any interest in anyone. As her mother, Carol had known not to ask her any questions, merely embraced her and told her it would be all right though she knew Alice was having a hard time believing that. When Abel's men had piled in, she had slipped away from all of them and sat deep in her own thoughts.

Chesh, who had been following her and hadn't left her side since the Singing Woods, had simply leapt up onto one of the bookshelves and not said a word either. Only the occasional purr had reminded anyone that he was there. But to everyone, only Alice's presence really mattered now as she had the most at risk if Hatter was indeed being persuaded to kill her. But her silence had been strange and almost out of character for her. Whether or not she heard a word anyone said wasn't showing.

The velvet drapes parted a bit to show her reclining against the window-frame. "I'm here," Alice answered her mother, drawing tiny figurines on the foggy windows. She stared at them and then angrily swiped her fingers through the drawings.

"Do you feel like you want to contribute something to our decisions?" Abel asked as he turned to stare at her. She didn't look at him and didn't rise to the bait.

"Looks like everything is decided."

"But Alice, your wisdom in these matters, your experiences, surely they are of value," Charlie protested and she turned her head. Her eyes went over everyone before her gaze narrowed in on Abel again.

"Maybe. But to be honest, Charlie, I'm stuck on something very important that none of the Drawlings have really explained to us."

From his place on the bookshelf, Chesh's grin appeared to split his feline face in half. Knowing what she was about to say, his eyes glinted bright green in the firelight as they settled on Alice again.

Alice put one foot on the ground and stood up, her eyes travelling from Pidge, to Caryn, then back to Abel again. He simply stared back and then eventually had to look away when her icy stare didn't soften. Ever since Hatter's unexpected attack, he hadn't been able to really look at Alice without feeling some guilt and she knew it. Charlie, watching the silent interplay between Alice and the others, looked over at Carol and she shrugged her shoulders, just as confused as he was.

"What exactly do you need to know before you agree to us leaving the Manor to escape almost certain death?" Abel asked dryly but his attempt at humour fell flat.

Alice finally moved away from the window and crossed the floor quickly until she was standing just in front of him. "I want you to tell the truth, Abel. Why can Hatter find his way through this place? I still get lost in the Manor and I'll have been here weeks longer than him."

The silence was deafening as Caryn shot her father an almost desperate look that he returned with a reproachful glare. Caryn crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at the tips of her shoes, shivering at an imaginary chill. That Pidge seemed lost and unable to answer gave Alice only a slight reassurance that, when it came to his own family, he was just as unenlightened as she was.

"Tell me the truth. I don't want you to keep avoiding the truth by telling me some inane fact. And knowing you, it will likely be fact that is actually nothing close to what I asked you!" she demanded angrily.

"Fair enough, I'd say," Charlie mused aloud and was shushed automatically by both Pidge and Carol, who were listening avidly. Neither one wanted to miss any of this.

Alice ignored her friend. "Is it that his father was here and would have told him how to manipulate it?" she asked, more gently now because she wasn't sure she could keep her voice from breaking.

Sighing deeply, Abel clasped his hands before himself and looked her in the eye.

"Hatter can find his way through and the Manor will warp to his demands, not because of any knowledge his father gave him or his grandfather. The Manor's halls would change for him... because he's of the Drawling bloodline," he stated bluntly and Alice blinked, stunned though she had suspected this since they had come back. She hadn't missed how unconcerned Abel had been when he thought Selena may come alone to this place and she had noticed how quickly that had changed when he had seen Hatter working with the assassin.

"But..." Her confusion was written plainly on her face and she bit into her lower lip as she tried to think of the right question to ask.

"Father." Caryn swept her skirts around herself and shook them out. She took her time doing so, gathering her own thoughts before she continued. "Allow me to explain this to Alice in private while you keep going with the plans to escape the South. I'm sure Pidge can be of help." Caryn waved her hand at Carol when the other woman went to stand. "It would be best if Alice heard this by herself, Carol. My family owes it to her."

Carol was ready to argue that point but Caryn was already walking out the door to the tiny study attached the library. With little other choice and burning with curiosity, Alice glanced at her friends and saw Chesh's eyes on her. There was a knowing look there that made her skin crawl and she followed Caryn quickly through the door to avoid that look. She snapped the door shut with a click and took in the room without any real care to these newer surroundings. Caryn gestured for her to go near the small table in the centre while she took a seat on the tiny divan. Alice couldn't bring herself to sit, a sudden nervous knot twisting her stomach. Every possibility was going through her head and she had to struggle to focus on the older woman looking at her. Her thoughts were plain on her face and Caryn began to meticulously arrange her skirts around her legs to avoid having to face her now.

"My father has a habit of being difficult," Caryn began and Alice made a rude noise to interrupt her.

"Please. You're just as difficult at times," Alice snapped, her mood split between anger and exhaustion. She was tired of these games and one way or another, she was going to get an answer!

Caryn looked up from her skirt and her eyes narrowed slightly at the younger woman.

"It was unavoidable, Alice. We've had to keep some secrets for so long that we've become rather unused to speaking of them. One tends to try to plan things and sometimes when it fails, it isn't easy to speak about it." Caryn waved her hand in the air as if to encompass the entire room. "The strangest thing is, that this would have likely gone to the grave with us if you and your Hatter had remained in the City."

"We'll never know if you're right, will we?" Alice asked and she leaned against the table. "You're stalling and I'm losing my patience with you all."

Caryn rolled her eyes. "I am working up my nerve, Alice."

"You've had weeks to do it," Alice said, giving her no sympathy. "So. Tell me exactly how this works. How is Hatter related to the Drawling Master? Bloodlines are everything in Wonderland, supposedly, and Hatter never knew much about the Drawlings when we were together. It doesn't make sense that if he is part of your family that Abel wouldn't want him here. He likes to be in control too much to let Hatter run loose without his influence."

"You're right. But my father has always run a different course than the rest of Wonderland's expectations and can still surprise some people. The same as your Hatter, I suppose," Caryn said. "And yet, these eccentric men sometimes make the decisions that affect Wonderland the most."

"He's only tried to do what he thought was right." Alice rubbed at the side of her face and sighed. Her thoughts drifted to where that had gotten them all. "No matter the cost."

"He always was such an eager child," Lady Caryn commented as she leaned back on the divan.

"I suppose he could have been..." Alice froze and turned on her heel slowly. "Beg your pardon? You knew him?"

The older woman looked distinctly uncomfortable. "You could say so. Travel was more frequent back then."

The lie was obvious in her voice, Alice could tell by the faint tremor in it. There had been a deep flash of pain in the woman's face that told her that Caryn had meant something else.

"Hatter said he almost never came to the South, and even when he did he was only here for a few days as a teenager," Alice said as she took a step towards the noblewoman. Lady Caryn's fingers twisted in her lap and she tried to avoid Alice's stern blue gaze, for once seeming childlike. Alice took in the elder woman's nervous twitching and then bit her lower lip, perplexed by the change. "Just who are you, Lady Drawling? A cousin, an old friend of his family? His aunt even?"

"A friend of Hatter's, you could say," Caryn answered but her voice was almost frantic. She stood as if to put distance between herself and Alice. Alice grabbed her arm and held her still, ignoring the annoyed look she was given.

"That doesn't answer my question. You've seemed familiar from the moment I met you. Maybe if I find Hatter I'll lead him to meet you and we can find out then just how you know him," Alice said, her voice edgy on the threat. Caryn's eyes widened and then she sighed in a defeated way.

"I'd prefer that not to happen, not yet," she said and her eyes went to Alice's. She sighed and held her arms out as if she was pleading with the younger woman. "Look at me, Alice. Think beneath the lies of omission and the half-truths. I think that you do know why I know so much and you might have known all along who I am."

Alice let her eyes go over this woman, remembering the hints to the past this woman had given her. Caryn had always seemed to be wanting to tell her something, but never able to actually tell her. She was familiar in many ways and mannerisms but Alice knew that she had never seen her before this trip to the South. All the same, she had been so friendly from the moment they met and her eagerness to help Alice had been overshadowed only by her desire to learn about Alice's life in Wonderland City.

In some ways she reminded her of...

 _I'm so stupid_ , Alice thought to herself and she rocked on her heels, staring stunned at Caryn Drawling. _I've lived with the very reason she's familiar, seen the drawings though they were old... but that's ludicrous._

She stared and took her in with a thorough examination she had never had the time to do before.

Alice started to pick out details that somehow made everything make more sense.

The woman's amber brown eyes glinted sadly at her, the slight slant to them making her appear even more melancholy. The eyes, actually looking at Alice for once without twitch or a mask of cold indifference, were what was the most telling. Then there was her dark auburn hair that was touched by silver, her almost wiry build and the pout to her lips that made Alice feel like an idiot for never noticing it all before. Caryn seemed to be thinking of something else to say but it gave Alice longer to study her. There was such a familiarity to her: even the shape of her face, the way she would roll her eyes in exasperation and the way she'd thrust out her lower lip in thought was all too familiar.

Alice shook her head. She was probably certifiably insane to be thinking this. Caryn seemed to read her mind by her expression alone and sighed again.

"You're not crazy, Alice," Caryn answered as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"That's just not possible." Alice pushed her hair out of her eyes and gave her a shaky smile that was more confused than anything else. "You're dead. I mean, it's been pretty much declared."

She was staring at Hatter's mother and she wasn't sure if she was happy about this discovery or absolutely horrified and disgusted with herself for not realizing it before.

"For the past twenty-five South Wonderland years, yes, I was dead. Dead to the Taiga and Wonderland City yet still the mistress of Caryn Holdings of the South. Daughter of the Governor Abel North and Caryn Allison Unda. I retained that title though my father had attempted to disown me when I had first married Grey Hatta years ago."

"So what do I call you?" Alice asked, lost. She was almost feeling ill with this discovery and her legs felt shaky.

"My full name is Abigail Beatrice Caryn. A name is a name; I used Caryn to develop a life away from that of my other one. I've answered to all of them, at one time or another. Abigail would be something I've not heard in a very long time; I almost miss that name."

Alice took a second to absorb this and then gave the woman a troubled look. "But... all this time, you never said a word. Even knowing that your son was the father of my child. Why?"

"Because, as Oysters commonly do, if I had told you, you would have accidently blurted it out to Hatter thinking it would help him with his madness. Trust me, it would only make it worse."

She put her finger to her temple and twirled it, the meaning clear. Alice ignored the gesture but she did have a point.

"It is not like you had to protect me... Abigail," Alice said, testing out the woman's real name and finding it strangely fitting for her. Hatter's mother reminded her so much of a Regency lady that the old-fashioned name was perfect for her. "You barely know me, and..."

The look she was shot was almost angry as the older woman sat back down. "Alice, you are carrying my only grandchild from my first marriage. You can understand I am feeling just as protective of you as any grandmother would be," Abigail answered tersely and then her eyes almost seemed to glint with concern. "Does Noble know? You've never mentioned whether you had let it slip or not. "

Alice frowned and then realized who she was referring to. Apparently old habits died hard, even after all these years. "Hatter doesn't know yet. If I had told him he would have tried to leave me back in the City and then I would have lost him for good. I don't believe he is completely lost to me yet."

"It is important though," the older woman warned. "The Hatter line is privy to the secrets and powers of Wonderland but at a price. The madness that it brings can destroy someone. It is why only someone from that line can teach the children to control it."

Alice sighed, suddenly realizing why Hatter's father had raised him. "And that's why you had to leave him?"

"Precisely. If Noble had been a daughter, I would have stood a chance but as it was he was lucky to have his Grandfather as well. Though the old man would have been...difficult as a teacher, I admit," Abigail commented. She sighed and with a movement that was eerily familiar she flicked her head to the side to look at Alice curiously. "You have been good for him I can imagine."

"Hatter never speaks much about his family," Alice offered, her mind still reeling and piecing together this exposed mystery.

"He didn't have the happiest of childhoods, so can you blame him? He was my youngest and the only child I really was able to raise... to a point." Abigail twisted her fingers in her lap, her eyes dropping to the floor.

"Hatter never mentioned any brothers or sisters," Alice started and Lady Drawling shrugged.

"He was 7 years younger than my eldest son, who I had when I was sixteen and before I was officially married. Old Hatter took him in, as my husband was fighting the wars back then and unable to train Albrecht March to his full potential. Then a botched tea party led to his kidnapping by the Hearts." She noticed Alice's tension. "Aye. The Queen's assassin was from the Hatter family. Something I'd not be proud of. I had no hand in raising him though, and he was out of control thanks to his own... tendencies. I believe that Grey never really recovered from his loss; he blamed himself that the Queen was able to kidnap his eldest."

Alice absorbed this as quickly as possible. "Did Hatter..."

"He knew, yes. Hatter lived in constant warning to never take his brother lightly. Still, I tried to give him the love I hadn't been able to give his brother and it worked well. But it was when I was due to give birth to his little sister that I..." Abigail's eyes squeezed shut. "Saw something I shouldn't have. It put me into a miscarriage and that became one of the reasons why I left."

Alice stared and her one hand went to her belly protectively. "Why did you leave?"

"Suffice to say, I learned the full extent of my husband's love for another woman, something I had hoped to have never learned. Learned just how deep his treachery had gone." She leaned forward and took Alice's hand when she saw Alice's anger. "The Queen's own daughter, touted as a mastermind at a delicate age, was the bastard of the Hatter family. Out of a most powerful Oyster as well and the results of that mixture of blood was something even my husband was unable to cope with. "

Alice blinked. "Thyme? But... she tortured Hatter when he was a boy."

"Hatred is a powerful thing, Alice. She was bred for that I suppose, as that love between my husband and his mother was a twisted one at best. I was not surprised by that but I was so furious. Had my father not delayed the news from reaching me at the time, I would have likely destroyed that whelp and her bitch of a mother myself," Abigail swore and for the first time Alice saw the real viciousness to her; it was a sort of maternal instinct that Alice was only just beginning to understand. "It was bad enough that, due to the rules of Wonderland and the details of my separation, I had to appear dead to the only child I had left. But to learn that the woman responsible for that had allowed my son to be tortured... it was too much. Thankfully, Old Hatter wasn't as blind to the White Queen as my husband was. I've never forgiven Grey for even allowing the events of Hatter's later childhood to happen. He deserved to be happy and Grey let it be taken from him."

"But Grey loved you..." Alice started and the other woman gave an almost hysterical giggle of laughter, as if Alice had said something hilarious. Realizing that Alice didn't understand the joke, her face became a dignified mask again.

"Perhaps but most of all he loved the idea of me." Abigail sat back. "Put it in perspective, Alice. If you had stayed in your world because you believed it was more normal, the thing you should do because it was expected of you, you would be like him. He loved me because I represented the 'normal' Wonderlandian life that would have awaited him had he never met the White Queen. I accepted his love; though I loved him as a lover, he loved me as a friend. A love that twists itself eventually when it has to be shared."

Alice stood, her mind almost hurting with this revelation. Her heart didn't ache for the lonely woman before her but for the lonely little boy Hatter must have been. Abandoned in a way by both his parents and left to the machinations of Wonderland...

"It's not fair," Alice muttered as she went to walk away to the lone window in the room.

"Such is Wonderland. I was under pain of death if I returned to Wonderland City openly; the Queen of Hearts had her problems with me as well. Where else could I go but home?"

"You could have kept in contact with Hatter!" Alice shouted, whirling on the other woman with her body almost glowing in anger. "He grew up believing, in a twisted way, that he was responsible for your death."

Abigail flinched but didn't cow much. "How can I keep in contact with him when I believed him dead for over ten years when the Taiga fell? After the Wars took so many victims? The Dodo prevented my attempts at even looking for him, but I had hoped, when the Queen was gone, that I could come back. But he was gone. To your world. I resigned myself to the fact that he had gone to a better life."

"And we returned."

"Don't think to judge me on this yet, Alice. I had lived with my guilts long enough." She sighed and rubbed at her knuckles. "How do you return to a child you love when time has changed too much?"

"Carefully," Alice bit out.

"But you understand why we can't stay here?" Abigail pressed. "He will find his way through here and once he does the others will come to try to take your mother and my father to do whatever it is they've set out to do with the conduits."

Alice shrugged. "It would have been useful to know weeks ago," she responded and moved to the second door that led to the hall. She wasn't ready to see the others with the weight of this knowledge weighing down on her.

"Will you... speak of this to him? If he is recovered?" Abigail asked, not moving to stop her. Alice stopped, the door half-ajar, and looked over her shoulder.

"No. I think this will be your trial to get through. You are asking a lot in wanting his love and forgiveness," Alice said sternly and she met Abigail's eyes without blinking. "But you are very lucky. Your son is a good man, better than most. I would just not get my hopes up about this. I'm... not even sure I can talk to you right now, Lady Drawling."

She slammed the door on her way out and managed to get a few paces away from the room before she almost collapsed against the wall. The shock of finding Hatter's mother went through her and she clutched at her belly.

"I swear," she whispered as she cradled the tiny life inside of her, "you'll never have reason to doubt me or Hatter."

Alice could have sworn she felt a tiny kick in response to her words and smiled, finding a smidgen of contentment in that tiny action.

 


	29. The Desperate Bet

It was a strange thing, to withdraw and hide within one's own mind. Strange and yet safe; here there were rooms and darkness to get lost in, to get away from the voices, the dizzying madness and agony of his tortured body.

Hatter was only dimly aware of someone ordering him to do something outside of this dreamy place; he was so lost in his mind that he didn't care to try to hear what those orders were. Everything in his mind had been pulled close to protect him. Now there was a feeling of warmth in the darkness that hadn't been there before. He had started to accept it more; it kept the pain away. The comfort of the darkness was only broken by the occasional odd creation his mind created that would drift about in the shadows. The voices had stilled somewhat and the silence was blissful though it would only be a matter of time before they started again.

There was nothing to be done now except to sit and wait for it.

There was nothing else to be done, he thought.

He had been broken apart, and that feeling was deep and almost painful even after these weeks. That sensation of being two people, the sane and the insane, was exhausting and the saner side to him started to blend with the insane part. Hatter had lately felt as if he had heavy chains weighing him down, so that those moments when he regained control became few and far between. Whether or not he really could wasn't important. In many ways he didn't want to and would rather stay here in the darkness, since the exhaustion was making him feel so heavy he couldn't be bothered to lift his own head. And lately... the saner side to him was being allowed to wallow in self-pity.

In this tiny corner within a place where madness reigned, where he found only pain in his memories, Hatter had found a bit of comfort.

Though he knew he should be worried that he found it in the hallucinations of his own mind.

He had found comfort in the warm lap of the woman who was stroking his head the way someone may stroke a cat. He had been lying curled up against her for some time and he felt all at once like he was five years old again. It had been this way for as long as the darkest parts of him had been brought roaring up by the madness, a madness that wanted to destroy the frequent illusions he had been seeing of Alice. It had only been his own reluctance to ever hurt her that had kept him from killing the illusions, though it had been so close and it would happen eventually, he knew. When he had retreated within himself and his mind had split into one of its many facets yet again, Hatter had slipped into a hypnotized state thanks to the Doctors.

And found waiting for him in the darkness the strange woman that had been haunting him for days now. She had merely taken his hand and brought him down to the foggy floor beside her, her long white hands soothing him to a calmness he hadn't felt in a long time. Without speaking, she had simply held him and hummed a soft lullaby he knew he should remember yet couldn't place. Hatter, lost in his grief, had simply hid his head against the gossamer of her translucent violet gown and trembled like a kicked puppy whenever a small shock of pain went through his body and into his mind.

He was still being tortured on the outside but on the inside he was able to feel only a shadow of it.

He wasn't sure of the time that passed as he lay there in the warmth and the darkness, feeling only her hand going through his mussed hair again and again. Eventually, he had felt so lulled by her that he started to fall asleep. It would be nice to sleep for once; for over a month he had not slept even a little. This retreat into his own mind was not sleep; it was merely another state for his mind to stay in.

He was just too exhausted to sleep.

The hand didn't pause in its stroking but he felt her fingers grow heavier suddenly. "You can't stay here forever," the woman said, no longer rhyming her words to show how serious she was. In the past few days, whenever she had appeared to him, her words and phrasing had become almost normal, and she seemed to know that her rhyming was painful for him.

"I know. I'm too tired though," Hatter whispered, tightening his grip on the gown a bit more, as if he was afraid she would send him away. She sighed and he opened his eyes, looking up to see her brilliant green eyes staring at him from a face now marred by black scarring. It was like looking at someone wearing a half-mask. Her hair, longer and hanging in her eyes, was an ivory curtain hiding her expression and Hatter rolled onto his back, staring at her curiously to try to read her.

"You know what is being done to you, yet you stay here," she wasn't scolding him though, merely sounding defeated by his lack of care. "And you know better, child."

He sighed and rubbed at his eyes with one hand. "I can't do this again. Not when it is easier..."

"Easier to just let the very madness you resisted take over? To let Selena gain access to all that knowledge your family put into you?" Now she was scolding him and her fingers tightened in his hair a bit, pulling in warning.

"No. Easier than facing Alice's loss, the fact that I caused it," Hatter answered and he sat up. His eyes were, even in this strange dream realm, now a dark green and hadn't changed even in his most lucid of moments. The woman watching him lifted her palm and passed it down his face, watching the flares of light and shadow. She had been glowing brilliantly all the time, looking like a beacon in the darkness but her light dimmed when she stared at him longer.

"You might actually be lost," she said and with a heavy sigh she put her hand down on his stomach, pressing lightly. "Which is a deep shame for all of us."

"All wool in water," he answered irritably. "I must be mad, if my idea of comfort is you."

"So you know who I am then?" the woman responded and he rolled his eyes at her.

"I'm thick but not that thick." He got to his feet and stared down at her. She stared back at him, exposing a delicate white throat gently marked by green and black Oyster tattooing. "I'm just having a hard time deciding if I care about why I'm seeing you."

He shook out his right hand and began to pace up and down the dark, foggy path. The woman watched him, green eyes narrowed; though she said nothing to him, it was clear she knew what was happening to him. Hatter could feel shocks of pain even now and he pressed his hand to his aching side.

"What can make this stop?" he asked, voice slipping to a modulated, accent-less tone.

"Death," was the only answer she gave after a breath of time and he sighed.

"That might not be a bad thing," he muttered. There was sudden rumble all through his mind's dream-realm, like a small earthquake, and he stumbled for his feet. Mouth slack in confusion, his voice changed back to his rougher, more natural accent. "What the bloody hell?"

"Are you wanting to die?" she demanded angrily and he shrugged, not having an answer as he turned around. They stared at each other, her sad eyes piercingly beautiful to counter the green madness of his, and Hatter was the first to look away. Her eyes had a familiar look of disappointment, like a parent or teacher deeply hurt by a child's unwillingness to learn.

"You are too important to die yet, Hatter. I won't allow it."

His eyes narrowed. "Yet?"

"Everything has its time," she responded lightly but the smile she gave him didn't reach her eyes. The words disturbed Hatter though lately he hadn't cared whether he lived or died. She always seemed to like to make him think.

He turned around again, watching as the corridors of his mind warped around his own insanity. Something flew by his head, shrieking wildly and he frowned, squinting through the dim light to see that it was an awkwardly flying pigeon with a snake wrapped around its tiny feet. The snake was a vibrant coral shade and its fangs glinted just before they buried themselves in the breast of the pigeon. Still shrieking, the bird's flight became wilder even as it flew away from Hatter and the woman. The bird and serpent were swallowed by the shadows and Hatter turned on his heel, running his fingers through his hair. His fingers pulled at the gnarled strands and he groaned, squeezing his eyes shut as a throbbing began just behind his eyes.

Something brushed his side and he felt a tug on his coat, insistent and yet weak. When he glanced behind himself, he saw nothing but empty space but he could still feel the tugging. Without thinking why, he glanced down and saw a small boy staring up at him, several long scratches marring the innocent face. Hatter felt a strange stillness in his own head then as he stared at the boy whose eyes were incredibly wide and dark. Crouching down, he watched as the boy flinched and took a few steps back.

"I'm not goin' to hurt you," Hatter encouraged, holding out one hand. "What're you doing here?"

"You're not the same person, you ain't," the boy answered, his voice thick with the old North accent. Hatter stared at him and dropped his hand, searching the boy's battered face intently.

"Who're you?" Hatter asked, masking his impatience as best as he could. The boy pushed back his mop of dark hair and stared at Hatter intently from near black eyes.

"You're not me and I'm not you," the boy insisted and Hatter frowned, puzzled by the look of anger on the boy's face.

"You're me?"

"I just said I ain't!" was the answer and Hatter shook his head, confused.

"Just getting weirder and weirder," he muttered to himself. Which, when he thought everything over, was certainly saying something. "Then who're you?"

"Nobody anymore," the boy answered and turned such a sad expression on Hatter that the older man felt as if he had kicked a puppy. "All going to end sooner or later."

"What?" Hatter started and heard the sound of fabric swishing on the ground. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that the green-eyed woman was still sitting against the dark walls but she wasn't staring at him. Instead, she was dragging a thin chain necklace through her fingers.

It was when he tried to see what the tiny charms were attached to the necklace that he noticed a thin, young girl dressed in a raggedy blue pinafore. She was walking fast, approaching from behind with a murderous expression on her pale face. Hatter stared, unable to help himself as her blue eyes bore into him. Her dark brown hair was pulled back severely, making her face appear bony and gawky and her eyes seemed massive in her pretty face.

She had a familiar look to her and though she must have been the same age as the boy in front of Hatter, she seemed older just because of her eyes.

The boy before him seemed ignorant of the girl even as she stood behind him and planted her hands on her hips.

"Failure!" she said angrily. "All it is a failure! So what is the point keeping it all alive then?"

Hatter couldn't help but stare stupidly at the girl. Stunned by the incredible intelligence he could see in her large blue eyes, he went to step toward her and found his own feet stuck on the ground, as if they were set in cement. He reached down and actually tugged on one of his legs but the muscles and bone seemed locked.

"Bloody hell," he whispered and lifted his head in time to see the dark-haired boy collapsing to the ground, his throat cut and eyes staring lifelessly up at Hatter. An expression of resigned horror was frozen on his face and Hatter felt the sudden urge to scream. The girl was holding a knife in one hand, looking devastated at what she had done.

Her straight gaze met Hatter's. "Not much choice," she commented and drove the knife deep into her own stomach.

His legs finally unlocked and he gasped as he fell forward onto his knees. When he managed to get back upright again, the girl and the dead boy were gone, leaving him alone with the green-eyed woman once again. But what also remained was a dark pool of blood that even in the distance Hatter could smell.

He crumpled down to his knees and cradled his head in his hands. The pounding pain in his head was increasing with each throb of his own heart and the blood was roaring in his ears. The sight of the murdered child had pushed at the dark tinges of his own madness. Hatter knew that this all had a deeper meaning but through his suffering he couldn't think of what it was.

He heard soft footsteps and opened his eyes to see a pair of pale white feet on the ground before him. Slowly he looked up and saw the woman now crouching before him. She reached out and cupped his cheek.

"Oh, Hatter."

Then she suddenly slapped him hard across the face, and he felt his teeth cut into his own cheek. He spit out a faint bit of a blood and stared at her in shock.

"Snap out of it!" she ordered. "I shouldn't have to get involved in this and you are forcing me to. Stupid child."

"What the...?" He started and she held up a finger in warning to silence him.

"You are going to have to make a choice, boy. And those are never easy. To trust this," she touched his head and he flinched at the heat of her palm. Her hand then dropped to touch just above his heart. "Or this. Either way, it will end your madness and pain. But the end results will be very different."

"I don't understand."

"And you're running out of time." She rolled her eyes up thoughtfully. "Our session is over, unfortunately."

A sudden shooting pain went through Hatter's head and he cried out, surprised by the sensation.

* * *

"Wake up," a voice boomed through the darkness and the woman faded from view in a ghostly way. It made him wonder if she was ever anything but a hallucination his own madness had created. The pain suddenly increased and he slipped through the darkness back to where his mind had formed a tiny meeting place in its interior. The Doctors both stood there, arms crossed over their chests. Dum's one eye was stitched closed, with a long scar from his forehead to his chin distorting his face, while Dee was standing a few prudent feet away from his brother.

"What now?" Hatter asked, his voice slipping as the darkness seemed to exude from him. It felt as if someone else stepped into his shoes and forced him to step behind a grey veil. Someone else that was taking charge so that he didn't have to.

"We're arriving. You've been in this... trance of yours for well over three hours. What have you been doing?" Dee asked.

"Resting. What have you been doing?" Hatter snipped back and Dum's frown deepened.

"You've not given us what we wanted," he said and the young man's head turned to him. Even in the dim light, his eyes shone unnaturally bright.

"You've not given me an incentive," he responded and the twins looked at one another before Dee stepped to one side.

"Perhaps you're right. You do need something to motivate you."

Like a shadow, Alice stepped out beside him, her wide blue eyes staring down. Nervously, she started to toy with the sleeves of her purple velvet coat. Hatter stared, knowing that this was an illusion but so desperate for it not to be. Alice's head lifted and she gave him a bright smile that made his heart skip a beat.

"Hatter!"

He couldn't step toward her, feeling as if his feet were frozen again but this time by his own choice. This was always the way the vision played out; a torture that was being spun out and exhausting him. Alice threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around him, and she pressed herself from head to toe against him. Hatter reciprocated, holding her as tightly as he could.

"I've been so worried about you," Alice whispered against his neck.

"Alice," Hatter started, stroking her back with a shaking hand. She felt so alive in his arms; each breath and heartbeat, each shiver, felt so real.

"Did you tell them anything?" she asked, lifting her head and staring back at him. Hatter shivered, taking in a deep breath and then almost recoiling at the odour in the air. His mind was perhaps playing tricks on him because he could smell decay and death on her very skin.

Then again, maybe not.

"I..."

"You can come with me. They haven't hurt me yet, I swear. But you need to tell them how to create the conduits now, not just the ingredients. You can save me then," she begged but something was off in her voice. It sounded like it was coming through a crackling microphone and the wording was off. It was too formal and Hatter frowned at her.

"You're not real," he whispered and her face took on a desperate expression, her fingers clenching against his shoulders.

"Of course I am," she insisted.

Hatter backed away and instantly it felt like a bolt of electricity surged through his ribs as punishment.

"Hatter, I'm real!" She reached out toward him and he shoved her hand away. "Please, just..."

"Go away," he whispered and her face contorted into a hideous parody of her own features, rage and hatred gleaming from her eyes. Hatter could barely dodge as she launched herself at him, this time with a knife flashing in one hand and a gun in the other. Again, the scene was the same and he reacted the same, rolling her over his back to flip her away. But the visions from before had never hated him like this and she was screeching her venom at him.

A sign that whoever had created this one wanted to torment him and he felt the pounding fury of madness that increased as he dodged her wild attacks.

He had to stop it.

Hatter felt as if something in him snapped and a blankness that overrode every sense and sensibility that still remained. His defensive grew angrier and angrier until she was soon falling back, unable to stop him as he grabbed her and held her tightly against him, twisting her so that she was no longer staring at him. His arm wrapped around her throat and she elbowed him hard.

Without a second thought, he anchored his other hand in her hair and promptly snapped her neck with a devastating crunch of bone.

* * *

Watching from her place outside the clearing that the Doctors had claimed, Selena couldn't help but shiver as she saw the cold precision in Hatter's killing. The girl they had provided, the one the doctors' had put a glamour over, fell lifelessly to the muddy ground. Selena stepped around one of the trees and avoided the dead-eyes of the girl. It had been rather fortuitous that one of their prisoners, a supporter of the Taigian Royals and therefore a traitor, had weakly resembled Alice. It had made the illusions they had been using to torment Hatter all the more real and the Doctors had taken the girl without qualm.

Her own men, already petrified of the mad Hatter in their midst, had not been as accepting of this at all. It had taken some severe discipline to keep them in line but she herself didn't dare go close without protection. The loss of Dum's eye weeks ago had merely made everyone extra careful. Hatter's attacks were sporadic and usually unprovoked.

It was what made him so very dangerous to be around.

The Doctors had followed her orders to the letter, judging by the dead girl at Hatter's feet. That he wasn't even staring at the corpse showed how far he had been brought along. That he had fought the illusion in his mind and never noticed that it was a living girl in reality had been more than he had ever done before.

She jerked when she noticed that he was standing just across from her. Hatter was flexing the fingers of his right hand and then he resumed walking towards her again. His eyes had kept their vibrant green shade and she couldn't look directly into them, seeing the black lines that made his eyes more like cracked emeralds. Selena backed up a step, feeling the tree pressing into her spine and Hatter kept coming until he was mere inches away.

One hand went over her head to rest on the decaying tree trunk while the other anchored itself around her throat. She didn't dare move or speak then, too startled by the change in Hatter. Not once in the past weeks since the Tunnels had he approached her. His right hand tightened and she gasped when her windpipe was pinched.

"Stop... Hatter, you're cho..."

"How close are we?" he asked in that odd monotone he had adopted. His thumb stroked along the white column of her neck in a way that was more threatening than seductive. "How much longer does this have to go on?"

"Few miles out," she choked out and Hatter's head tilted on the side. He looked over his shoulder to where the body of the girl should have been but the Doctors had moved fast, removing the corpse. To Hatter's own demented thinking, it meant that the illusion was gone, that he had killed it. Selena, knowing this, lifted her hand and tried to tug his from her throat. "Just a few miles to the Drawling Manor."

His head turned back around and she saw his expression changing, his eyes dilating rapidly and then returning to normal. She forgot to choke, suddenly frozen with fear and not daring to provoke him.

"Then let's be done with it."

* * *

The entire Drawling Manor was in an uproar of movement but the final group was leaving finally, promising a bit of peace soon. The halls had been twisting all the time and the many rooms had changed shape to accommodate the size of each group and where they had to go. It all caused the massive buildings to shudder as they took each group to their new places to hide. The constantly flowing magic of the rooms and vast corridors held no wonder for anyone; there was only the terrifying knowledge that they were running for their lives. The Manor seemed to sense the coming destruction and even as it changed itself to help the family it was protecting, there was an actual sadness about it. The moaning and groaning as it turned itself inside out to help was depressing.

Standing at the terrace of his rear balcony, Abel sighed and stroked his hand down the marble railing. "Well, old man, best be time to go, don't you think?"

The manor actually rumbled its agreement and he smiled. "Least you've done a good job. We all survive this, I'll be sure you're nicely refinished."

The rumbles came again as if to answer him and following it there was a light laugh. Abel turned to see his daughter staring in amusement at him, Pidge at her shoulder. He arched a brow at her, noticing that Pidge was twirling his mallet casually as well.

"What?"

"Still talking to the house?" she asked, looking very thin and pale in her black outfit. For the past few hours, she hadn't said much and had simply absorbed herself in helping the others move around the Manor. When he had asked if she had finally told Alice exactly who she was and what that could mean, she had merely responded that he was to start calling her Abigail once more in private.

A most interesting side to his daughter had re-emerged, the kind he hadn't seen since she had left with that damned Hatta, and he found it both refreshing and yet at the same time tiresome. He hadn't called her by her given name in almost twenty-five years. He hoped he could remember to do what she asked.

"Best to offer it something to make this all worthwhile. New bannisters should do the trick... if we come back," he explained. "Are we all ready? The others are gone?"

Pidge shrugged and swung his croquet mallet back over his shoulder. "Ready as ever. I've sent orders to the others that we are to meet at the Lorry's old mill."

"We should go then." Abel clapped his hand on the railing and walked back into his rooms, trailed by his family who fell obediently in behind him. The Manor rumbled again, forcing them to stagger for balance, and at the hallway doors there was a loud snort of disgust.

"Phinneus, this place is almost making me feel sea-sick...and I'm nowhere near the sea. Come to think of it, I don't recall ever seeing the Wild Seas," Charlie declared as he came into Abel's study. Carol was walking just behind him, carrying a heavy bundle of his scatter-brain inventions. She was looking annoyed and quite put-upon, mostly because the White Knight hadn't stopped talking at all and had distractedly dropped everything when he had one of his 'visions' in the hallway.

"Charlie, just..." Carol put up a hand. "Five minutes. That's all I want. Five minutes of silence."

"Mrs. Hamilton, you must understand that as your Knight, I feel it necessary to declare all..." he started and she made a slicing movement at her throat.

"Shh!"

Pidge had moved to the doors leading to the conservatory but he clearly had no intention of opening them. He counted everyone in the room and then sighed. "Where's Alice?"

Carol looked over her shoulder. "She was just behind me..."

She slipped out the room and with little other choice the others followed her as she retraced her steps to the library down the hall once again. The balcony's doors were open, a warm breeze blowing in and disturbing the drapes and papers. The library books were flying around the room, re-sorting themselves into new neat piles on the shelves. Carol ducked a spinning book and saw through the drapes that Alice was standing on the large terrace, staring at the massive lawns of the Manor. Resisting the urge to simply run to her daughter, Carol glanced back at the Drawling Master but he only waved her through the doors impatiently.

Abel let the others go first into the library and he started stroking his hand along the wall, feeling its humming magic. Despite the flying books, the library seemed to be spared some of the wilder rumbling and the Drawling Master knew that that was a good sign. The Manor liked the Oyster and he had the feeling it had allowed her in here for a reason when it would have locked others out.

The girl had her coat off and draped over the balcony railing, the purple dress and blue leggings she wore providing no protection against the wind. The straps of the dress had fallen to the sides, leaving her shoulders and upper back bare, and revealed the Oyster mark on her back. For the first time in a while, the gryphon mark was moving and shimmering, its green and blue colour almost soft in the twilight's glow. Alice's shoulders bunched and she hissed out a breath that they could all hear. The mark's glowing intensified for a few moments and then subdued to a pale green shimmer.

Sitting before her and twitching his tail was the Cheshire Cat, whose purring was the only sound on the balcony.

Carol was the first one to step to her daughter's side.

"Alice? Honey, we're ready to go," she whispered, putting her hand through her daughter's. Alice gave her an absentminded smile but her eyes went back to the gates again.

"I know. We should get going, right? Everyone else has left, after all," Alice answered and her fingers tightened in her mother's. Pidge and Charlie came to her other side and stared out as well.

"I think I miss the Taiga," Charlie muttered. Even though he could barely see through the dense trees and fog in the distance, he could see the distant lamps and people moving through the mists. Alice put her arm through his and gave him a squeeze on the arm.

"Me too, Charlie. Never thought I would, considering everything that happened there."

She broke off and for a moment they were both lost in the same memories of that terrible journey. A journey that right now seemed so much better than the situation they were in.

"We should get going," Pidge ordered softly. "We'll be sittin' ducks in less than an hour."

"Sitting pigeons, I suppose," Chesh rumbled, but even his eyes hadn't left the scene just outside the Manor grounds. For once there was no smug grin to echo the levity of his words; he knew that even his life was in danger now and he felt a bit uneasy about it all. This odd quest had taken a slightly different turn than he had expected when he had agreed to it.

"Alice, let's get out of here," Carol encouraged and tugged on her hand. Her daughter slipped her hand free again and pressed it against her stomach, suddenly feeling ill.

"We need to go," Alice whispered but she was thinking something over instead of actually meaning her words.

Her mother was the only one not to notice how Alice's glow flared slightly as she came to a decision. Still standing half in the library and half outside, Abigail glanced at the Drawling Master and saw that he was muttering to the house again. He had moved to the doors to her own study and was stroking the door frame with his fingers. Alice appeared to hear him as well and turned on her heel, eyes sliding past the older woman with a cool directness. They hadn't spoken to one another in hours and it was clear that they weren't about to start being on friendly terms quite yet.

Abel finished his muttering and pushed open the door to the study. Only it was no longer his daughter's personal study but instead a great and yawning darkness, so thick that no light escaped or entered. One of the library books flew into the darkness and disappeared instantly. Nodding with satisfaction, Abel dusted off his hands on his coat and turned back to the rest of them.

"Our carriage of darkness awaits," he said mockingly and Abigail rolled her eyes.

"Really, father," she snapped in exasperation and he shrugged, smiling at her.

"Clearly a family trait of inappropriate humour," Chesh muttered and Alice turned incredulous eyes to him. He gave her an innocent look in return and then grinned widely when he saw her curiosity as well.

"Right then. Tally ho!" Charlie declared as he went to the door and poked his head into the darkness. He jerked it back out and stared at the other old man with open admiration. "Truly old magics, worthy of my own great brothers of the Knighthood."

"Thank you, Charles. That is a lovely thing to say, considering how rusty I feel when it comes to magic," Abel said with sincerity. He then looked at the others. "Well, shall we?"

Alice turned back and looked into the distance, her fingernails scratching down the railing as she tightened her fingers into fists. At her side, Pidge was watching her face intently and trying to read what she was thinking. But her face was blank of emotion, her eyes stony and resolved. Her mother simply walked to the strange doorway and stood next to Charlie, gesturing impatiently when no one else followed.

"Are we going?"

Alice exhaled slowly and shut her eyes, swaying slightly. When she reopened them and turned around again, there was a hard look in her eyes that hadn't been there before. It was a look that made Hatter's mother look away, knowing what Alice had decided.

"Yes. You are," Alice said coolly.

Even if she hadn't been listening, Carol wouldn't have missed that decisive tone. "Alice, sweetie, we need to go. All of us," she insisted and Alice stepped away from the balcony. Carol met her halfway and took her hands in hers. "All of us, Alice."

She was given a weak smile instead as Alice said, "I can't."

"Then none of us leave," Pidge declared and Alice rolled her eyes.

"You're going. You need to protect my mom, Pidge," she ordered and Charlie huffed.

"I am quite capable..." he started but he was drowned out by Carol's vehement,

"Absolutely not! You are not staying here alone!"

Abigail glanced at her father and noticed that he was staring intently at Alice now. Staring and smiling an odd smile that meant something but what it mean she could never be certain with him.

"I just got you back, Alice, and I won't have you risk your life again," Carol continued. She gave Alice a pointed look. "Either of your lives."

"That's not your choice," Alice argued softly and before her mother could respond she reached out and took her hand again. "Mom, I love you and you know how much I do. I came here to make sure you were safe, because I never wanted this to happen to you. "

She glanced at Abel and then at Abigail, a spark of understanding showing in her eyes. She suddenly understood why Abigail had stayed with Hatter's father despite his lacklustre attempts at returning her love.

"But I _need_ him, Mom, more than I ever realized I did... and I need to bring him back. For all our sakes." She released Carol's hand abruptly. "I need to do this and I think I know how. But I don't need you all here to do it. It would only make things worse if you are here to distract me and I won't risk any of you."

"It would be a pleasure to die at your side, Justalice!" Charlie cried, bowing wildly and nearly knocking Abel over. Alice gave him a smile and shook her head.

"A noble thought, Charlie, but like you said, you need to protect my mom. I trust you to do that. I want her safe and I want her to get home," she answered and gave Abel a meaningful look. "You owe us that."

He nodded and jerked his head to the door, letting her know that they may be running out of time as it was.

"Alice... you can't," Carol whispered. Alice quickly wrapped her arms around her mother and hugged her tightly.

"Mom, I don't think I have a choice anymore," she answered.

Pidge shook his head. "This is stupid. You can't expect us to leave you alone to face an entire group of mercenaries."

 _And a Hatter sent to kill you_ , he thought.

Alice stepped back from her mother and flashed him a grin. "I won't be alone though," she explained and glanced over her shoulder at Chesh. "I think it's time someone earns their keep."

The cat evaporated into the air and then just his head reappeared above Carol's shoulder. "Suicide is not exactly my thing," Chesh refused, his politeness ruined by the condescending tone of his voice. "I don't think bravery should ever equal death... especially my own."

"Oh I know that." Alice fiddled with the bracelet on her wrist, stroking the charms in a way that got his undivided attention. "But I would have thought that the opportunity to earn your freedom and use your magic would tempt you."

The cat eyes narrowed, not only at her possible threat but at the idea of getting his real body back. "Oh?"

"It'll give you an opportunity for trickery," Alice offered as an incentive and his grin appeared.

"I could be tempted."

"That makes me feel no better about this," Carol muttered and Alice immediately hugged her again.

"Mom, please," she murmured in her ear. "This has to be my choice. I came to Wonderland wanting to be with him, and I can't let him go now."

Carol pulled back and there were tears in her eyes. She went to say something and then stopped herself. Without looking at Alice again, she merely ran through the dark doorway. Charlie sputtered and went after her, distracted by her obvious distress. Abigail watched them go and then approached Alice, jerking the chain necklace from her neck. She pressed it into Alice's hand and then squeezed.

"Protective charms, Alice. Given to me by my mother, a very very long time ago. If you need to, it can help you manipulate the Manor to protect you," she explained. Alice simply nodded but had no answer for Hatter's mother. Instead, she watched her as she went through the door and the door made a strange sucking noise when she did so. Alice glanced at the Drawling Master, finding his silence was bewildering. She couldn't help but feel that some words of sarcastic wisdom from him would have been better than none at all. Abel merely gave Alice crooked smile and a nod and then followed his daughter through.

Leaving Alice with Pidge.

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Please take care of her and Charlie," Alice asked and he nodded, his face revealing how worried he was about letting her do this.

"You're sure this is what you want?" he responded.

She sighed. "If I don't try to get him back, to pull him free, I'll regret it for the rest of my life."

He seemed to accept it as if it was decision he himself was making. He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and then Pidge gave her a dimpled grin that leapt to his eyes. It was a look that made him look like he was up to something. She took a wary step back and when she did he chuckled.

"I suppose that if I try to kiss you for luck, you'll...?" he offered devilishly and she smiled.

"Make sure you end up in the infirmary singing soprano," she joked and he winked.

"Duly noted." Still, he reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "Be careful, Alice. And bring him back. I'll have no one to bug if you don't."

He was gone after those encouraging words, closing the door behind himself as he entered the dark portal, and leaving Alice alone with the Cheshire Cat. The Manor was empty now except for the both of them, she was almost certain, and with a heavy sigh, she went back to the railing. Resting her elbows on it, she leaned down and gave a tired sigh.

Chesh appeared beside her on the railing, his tail twitching impatiently.

"Well then, what is your great plan, Oyster?" he demanded.

Alice stared at the front gates in the distance. "They took Hatter's sanity from him using illusions and torture, I'd bet my life on that."

"So?"

"So we're going to have to snap him out of it. And I think we'll need our own illusions to do that." Alice's mark shifted on her skin and began to glow once again, which made her seem paler. "You said they would use me as his weakness?"

"It would the clever thing to do," Chesh purred, and looked back out.

Alice smiled. "Then we're going to have to use me as his strength." She tugged on his tail and walked to the doors. She turned to see him still staring out at the forest and she snapped her fingers. "Come on. We've got some work to do with the Manor if it will let us."

That caught the Cheshire's almost infinite curiosity and he bounced down from the railing to follow her into the depths of the Drawling Manor. He just missed seeing the crows that alighted suddenly on the railing where he had been sitting, a small murder of ten. All took their places facing outward and froze almost in place, like statues on guard.

 


	30. The Wild Gambit

In the few minutes it took for Selena's men to penetrate the front gates, the outer face of the Manor began to change in response to their invasion. Wild vines appeared to spring from the ground and crept up the high iron gates and brick walls, looking like a sea of snakes as they wrapped around railings and turrets. Along the centre roadway, the outer lamps flickered on and off in a wild flurry. The Manor was shaking as its outer walls cracked and expanded, iron spikes and rails springing up on the normally sedate walkways to block the way to the gardens. The few men that had gone to scout ahead only narrowly dodged being impaled by the spikes. Keeping a wary eye on the quivering spikes, they spread out along the walls to see if there were any soldiers hiding in the depths of the grand house.

But there was nothing, only a strange stillness underneath the rumbling of the Manor. Even from the windows, it was a sight that made Selena's mercenaries more than a little uneasy.

"Boss?" Tot called out as he jogged back to where Selena still crouched just inside the gates, studying an old architect's map of the house that she had laid on the ground. When she looked up, he actually bowed to her with a formality that made her arch a brow. "Everything is unlocked. Nothing is barring the way. There's no one in the main building from what we can see out the windows. Not even a trace."

She rocked back on her heels and put her hand to her chin. Her black eyes were narrowed and focussed on the map again. She was tracing the lines of the house with a dagger and the way she did it made Tot suddenly wish he hadn't come so close to her.

"Oh really?" she responded, not waiting for his answer. "That seems rather… odd for the Drawling Master and for Pidge."

"He knew we were going to destroy his home. The sort of thing that drives most men to rage. Why would he not leave it well guarded?" Dum asked, resting his electric prod on one shoulder. Dee, who was staring at the chestnut mare and her rider to his left, hissed out a breath and rolled his eyes to the dark, rumbling sky. The turbulent weather had followed them all the way to the Manor and it was threatening to storm. The way the trees waved in the harsh wind gave him a sudden, uncomfortable thought.

"Contrariwise, who is to say it is unguarded?" he countered and they all looked at him. He gave a pointed look to where Hatter sat on his horse, half-asleep and unaware of their scrutiny, and then at the Manor. The wild vines had almost completely covered the outer walls. "Wild magic against wild madness… a possible recipe for disaster, you know."

"Almost as if he had planned for this but then again, maybe he didn't. Such is life; a series of circumstances that either are or aren't connected," Dum agreed and Selena rolled her eyes, sheathing her dagger into her boot.

"Are you two quite finished? We've got no need for more philosophical debates," she snapped before turning away to Tot. "Get the men to force the front doors open. Stagger yourselves in the front lobby and keep your guard up. Knowing the old man he left a load of traps for us. All of them are likely ready to spring at any moment."

He nodded and backed away, removing his gun from its holster in preparation. Selena adjusted her own holster at her hip and turned to the Doctors. They were talking lowly to one another and nodding to Hatter.

Selena glanced at Hatter and had to look away. The sight of him was now an uncomfortable one since she realized how little control they really had over him. Since she had realized how easily he could kill any of them and not care if he could get the chance to try.

Trying to ignore the fear that thought gave her, Selena cleared her throat noisily and both Doctors looked at her. When she saw Dee's condescending look, she wondered just how much longer she needed to keep them around before she could have them killed. They were serving their purpose in controlling Hatter, though their control was slippery at best. _Hopefully_ , she thought, _we won't need them for much longer._

"Keep him close. We need a good bloodhound to sniff out the way through this Manor," she stated, jerking her chin to where Hatter rested on his mare. Seeing their hesitant look, Selena wondered if they were actually controlling Hatter anymore. She turned and followed Tot and her men to the massive doors to wait for them to clear the front foyer.

Behind her, Dum eyed her and gave a sniff of distaste. "How much longer do we need to remain in that creature's company?" he asked his twin.

Dee shrugged. "Just so long as she can get these mercenaries to bring us the elder Oyster and the Drawling Master. After that..."

"We can break her? This Hatter has been nothing work. Torturing the Snake might be like toying with a rattle in comparison," Dum pointed out with a glint in his eye and Dee smiled indulgently.

"We can once we receive the final order. Though, we may be most unlucky if she pushes the Hatter too far." He turned to the young man and nodded. Dum clicked on his electrical prod.

"Guess it is into the Manor we go then. I always do enjoy a good game."

"Especially one that ends in death," Dee finished for him.

* * *

The inner halls of the Manor were changing with each passing minute, taking on a decrepit appearance that almost hid how stately it had once been. The floors changed quickly as well as more and more people entered the Manor, growing wet, boggy grass though there was no dirt on the ceramic floors. The wide stairways on either side of the front hall were overrun with grass and the bannisters were wrapped in vines and blooming flowers. Sparkling sheets of water fell through the cracks in the ceiling, streaming down the floors to make the ground even more treacherous to walk on. If it hadn't been for the small signs of stairs, doors, and paintings, the front hall might have resembled some overly large grotto.

Despite her strict orders, Selena's men kept bunched together; a natural fear of such strangeness was making them cautious.

The building itself was humming and rumbling, the occasional shudder following. Beyond that, however, there was utter silence.

"There is nothing more damning than silence; whether in torture or in the outer face of such a wretched place," Dee commented as he came beside Selena, tapping his finger against his chin as he looked up. The marble and ceramic pillars that lined the walls actually looked alive because of the vines snaking around them.

"Never liked Southern magic. Too wild," Dum continued for him, still holding his electrical prod close to his side. It was still humming from its most recent use on the still half-asleep Hatter. Dum's small eyes were focussed on the doors nearest to them and Selena huffed.

"You two are going to frighten my men with talk like that," she started and Dee made an impolite snort.

"I believe you'll find that the reason for your men's unease has little to do with us... in a sense." He jerked his chin meaningfully at where Hatter was leaning against the door frame, having abandoned his horse on the outer balcony with the others. His face seemed thinner in the dim light, and his eyes were shut. But even in the distance, Selena could see his lips moving as he talked to himself; something he did almost constantly now though he seemed barely able to stay aware of his surroundings. A product of too little food and water and almost no rest, she supposed, and that had been going on for so long that she figured he'd eventually just die from exhaustion.

But then again, he had _always_ been rather full of surprises.

Turning her attention from him, she glanced around the room and then smiled triumphantly.

"He'll find them, I know it. Look," Selena pointed at the wall near where Hatter leaned. It had been covered in vines but now they were slithering back at his close proximity, revealing another grand room. She whistled at two of her men and jerked her thumb in the direction of the new room, and they obediently pushed through the still dense foliage.

Somehow, her guess that maybe Hatter's old mad blood would cause a response in the Manor was the correct one. Just why she was right... she didn't know the answer to that. It wasn't worth thinking on for now. She was merely glad that she was right and with a triumphant grin, she quickly followed her men with every intention of enjoying the coming capture of the Drawling Master.

* * *

Hatter sighed, his stomach and head both aching terribly, and opened his eyes. He could hear the voices starting again, a sort of madcap trio of his father, grandfather, and brother all shouting at him for being an idiot this time around. The dark emotions and anger he felt pervading his thoughts joined the voices in harassing him. The constant rhymes floating in his mind and the occasional flicker of light that flashed across his vision was enough to distract him from what the others were doing.

Not that he cared about a whit about them. He was here for one reason and one reason only. To end this strange torment that the Drawling Master had begun on him weeks ago, according to the evidence he'd been given. The darker, more vicious side to him was eager to simply tear off the old man's head, while the logical side, now almost silenced by the madness, managed to let him hope to torture out the Drawling Master's reasons for doing this. It made no sense to that part of him. He wanted to understand what he had done to deserve such torture.

But neither part of him was very certain that he wanted to know the answer.

Licking his dry lips, Hatter opened his eyes again and noticed that the others were gone through into the newly revealed hall. The compulsions, ones that the Doctors had driven into him for the past few hours, pushed at him to follow them but his mind rebelled against going into that room, as it usually did lately whenever they tried to control him.

" _You're a Hatter. You ain't a retriever or bloodhound, boy. If you were, your ma woulda had a puppy,_ " his grandfather's voice boomed in his ears.

"I know. Shut up, will you?" Hatter demanded and gave an almost hysterical laugh when the hundreds of voices in his head started to berate him.

He was concentrating so hard on trying to silence those voices that he almost didn't see the blue flowers suddenly sprouting around him. They actually made popping sounds as they sprang up from the wet grass and Hatter frowned, so distracted that the voices silenced themselves. The flowers, blue tulips and royal lilies, were actually familiar but...why? The vines all around him were moving almost frantically against the walls, writhing as more flowers popped up on them. More and more flowers, until the front hall was filled with blue petals and a soft, calming scent.

Hatter rubbed at his eyes and sighed. Seeing flowers wasn't exactly the highlight of these trials, he reminded himself.

He was about to laugh at the madness of such a sight when he felt something sharp sink into the back of his neck. The sudden pain left quickly before he could think to grab at his shoulders to stop it. Whirling on his heel, Hatter tried to see what it was that had just attacked him only to see the hall still empty save for him. Lifting his hand, he gingerly touched his neck and hissed when he accidently touched tiny, bloody scratches on the exposed skin of his neck. He swiped his fingers across the small wounds and then put his fingers in his mouth, the coppery taste of blood bitter on his tongue.

Least he was still real, he supposed.

"You are certainly a wreck, boy," a refined and perpetually snide voice commented, causing him to jump and jerk his fingers from his mouth.

A cat's head, tabby coloured and round, floated before him. An impossibly wide grin went from one pointed ear to the other as the cat's wide green eyes flickered strangely at him. Hatter stared back, momentarily stupefied.

"Wags if angry, growls when happy," he spat out, recognizing an old enemy when he saw one. The Cheshire actually cackled, the head going upside down before bouncing like a ball in the air towards the stairs.

"Still mad, eh, Hatter? How utterly pathetic of you," Chesh said maliciously. "But, when you think on it, I never said you were any better than those old codgers you were related to."

"Why are you here?" Hatter demanded, his accent-less voice causing the cat to blink slowly in surprise. Chesh had heard the instant change that came over Hatter, as if the darker madness was the real part of him and the other side was the mask.

Not that that really mattered to Chesh's purposes but it did interest him all the same.

"Why? To torment you of course; what a stupid question. It would be no more than you deserve, don't you agree?" Chesh asked, and his body reappeared so that he was perched on a nearby bannister. His tail curled around one of the vine-covered balusters while he kneaded the wood bannister with obvious pleasure. "I personally could have done without seeing you in such a state. I much prefer a more direct approach to causing you to suffer."

There was almost a sympathetic tone to his voice that made Hatter blink, momentarily put off step by that comment. Then Chesh's grin returned, chasing away all sympathy from his expression.

"But this does as much damage as I would do, I suppose," he finished.

"More illusions," Hatter whispered, reaching for the gun he had holstered to his side. He had it pulled and ready to shoot faster than he normally would, but the Cheshire was ready for him and was bouncing off before the shot even came close to hitting him. The bullet embedded itself deeply into the wood wall panelling and Hatter cursed loudly.

Chesh gave a delighted laugh and began to prance up the railing. Hatter stared after him, torn between following the way the vines were showing him and following his instincts to destroy this newest illusion. Chesh leapt to the top of the stairs and then sat there, staring down at him imperiously.

"Well?" The grin came back and Hatter felt his old hatred of the Cheshire come rushing back. It didn't matter that this was an illusion to him; Chesh had tormented him enough in real life for him to want to kill any illusion of him over and over again.

Chesh ran a paw over one ear and tipped his head to the side. "You do realize how pathetic you look down there?"

Hatter was half-a-mind to answer when he saw that standing just beyond the cat was a pale woman dressed in blacks and blues, her dark hair blowing in the faint draft going through the upper halls. The lights flickering in the hall almost made her glow, which made her seem like a ghost. She looked like Alice and instantly his much-abused mind saw it as the illusions he had been tormented with.

Though his heart still banged irritatingly hard at the sight of her standing at the top of the stairs.

She stared back at him and without a word or gesture she went back the way she had come, leaving the door open behind herself. The Cheshire twitched his tail and grinned at Hatter, strangely calm though he could clearly read Hatter's madness from the distance. He had seen Hatter's reaction to Alice.

"So, just what are you waiting for?" he asked and took off at a run when Hatter started up the stairs after him.

* * *

The lower rooms still bore the muddy footprints of many people on their once pristine carpets and marble floors, letting Selena and her men track them. The wild growth in the front hall was slower here which made the tracks still easy to see. At first, it had seemed rather simple to follow them and expect that just in the next room they'd find the huddled masses who had sought shelter with the Drawling Master. But room after room and trail after trail only revealed more and more rooms. Each door they came to merely led to yet another empty room and there was no sign of the people who must have come through.

In their frustration, Selena's men were starting to forget they had a right to be more than a little cautious in the Drawling Manor. They started to scatter, each going to different rooms and expecting a different result each time. But there was only emptiness and eventually they all met again when the doorways led them to a larger hall that must have been a council room before it had become overgrown.

One of the younger men kicked a door shut savagely, swearing when his foot throbbed in pain because of it. "Ain't nothin' here," he said as he limped up beside Selena, getting a chorus of agreement from the crowded people around him. The room was too small to hold them comfortably and they were all eager to move on. Selena glanced at him, clearly not caring what he thought, before turning her attention back to the one door that just seemed a little out of place. Its frame was horribly crooked and painted a dark blue, compared to the other doors she had seen that were white or grey.

"Maybe we just need to look harder," she answered and pointed at the door. The mercenary grinned and went to obey her, hoping that this door might yield results.

He was only steps away from the door when one of the crawling vines suddenly whipped out from the walls. It narrowly missed Selena's head and wrapped itself tightly around the young man. He shrieked in fear as the vine yanked him up into the air before anyone could move to help. The entire Manor seemed to groan with effort and the vine twisted tighter and tighter around the man.

Unable to help it, Selena stared, fascinated and half-expecting the vine to rip the man in half the way the Singing Woods' vines had. But unlike the Singing Woods, the vine began to slam the man into the ceiling, over and over again in a precise rhythm. His screams were deafening but finally ended abruptly as his neck was snapped. Another vine darted out to wrap around him and his body disappeared into the ceiling, absorbed by the vines and leaves that were rapidly growing with every passing second.

Selena hefted her gun to rest on her shoulder and whistled in appreciation. "Keep an ear out, everyone. You've seen that this place means business."

"How exactly do we fight this place? These vines?" one asked and she shrugged.

"Burn them or chop them up. I don't care. Just remember, I want that Oyster woman and the Drawling Master and I want them quickly," she ordered. "Then we can just blow this place to Wonderland's underworld for all I care."

Tot tapped her shoulder, characteristically a bit nervous of approaching her. He knew how dangerous she could be when she was looking for her next victims.

With an exasperated sigh and roll of her eyes, she whipped her head around. "What now?" she snapped and he flinched.

"Just… have... have you seen where the Hatter has gone?" Tot asked. He suddenly levelled his own pistol at one of the vines that was starting to creep down behind Selena and with a faint whine the vine backed off at the threat.

His leader turned left and right, startled to see that not only Hatter was gone but the Doctors as well. She had heard them walking behind her, she was certain. Frowning, she stepped back to where they had come from. With a wary eye out for more attacking vines, she reopened the old oak door and stepped through.

"That's odd," she whispered, realizing that the room had changed. Her men crowded in behind her and several made small gestures in amazement. They staggered themselves around this new room, which appeared to be a smaller library with books that lined its shelves from floor to high ceiling. The musty smell of old books and ink filled it.

"Where've they gone? You said the Hatter would track the Oyster down but if we don't have him, we're as good as lost," Tot accused and she nodded.

"I know what I said." She turned to check the door and heard a slam as the doors were shut forcefully. Immediately, vines and flowers grew over the wood before the nearest man could reach for the doorknob and Selena felt an icy cold sensation go up her spine.

It was terror, she realized dully.

One of the vines rose off the door and wove at her eye level threateningly. There were tiny blue and white flowers on its long tentacle and she backed up until she was pressed within the group. They were all pushed back together as vines began to crawl across the floor at them. Glancing at Tot, Selena nodded and he quickly took off his jacket, readying his matches with one hand to set it aflame.

A large book suddenly flew off one of the shelves and slammed into his hand so hard that the matchbox went flying into the air. Tot yelled in pain, clutching his hand to his chest as he stared bug-eyed at the book floating in the air. Selena and her men all lifted their attention away from the vines to stare at the books starting to fly off the shelves. The vines no longer crept forward but the books were now more dangerous.

It was a hurricane of paper and leather binding whipping around them and Selena crouched low. It was only just in time; she felt the rush of wind go by her cheek just before the books began to pummel her men with sickening thuds. They may have been just books to their eyes but they were throwing themselves around as if wielded by an attacker.

Selena had expected the Drawling Master to try to fight. But she hadn't expected the Manor itself capable of fighting them.

As she started to crawl for the shelter of a table, her hand brushed the matchbox and she instinctively curled her fingers around it. She wasn't going to be defeated by a house.

* * *

Watching Hatter wander the corridors of the Manor, Alice couldn't help but feel shivers of dread go up and down her spine. She had managed to stay a distance behind him as he tried to track Chesh through the Manor but thanks to Chesh's remnant magic, the cat had been able evade him. From the distance, Alice could hear Hatter talking to someone but she wasn't sure who. He walked in an uneven gait, pausing to twitch now and then, and whenever he turned around, he looked like a lost boy.

Alice barely remembered to keep hidden then, wanting to run to him and comfort him.

It was just so heartbreaking to see him like this, a mere shadow of the man she had known. But remembering the threat of violence she had seen in him, even in the front hall, had kept her concealed in the shadows of the corridors.

"Ravens aren't a thing like desks but it is always a question of how they could be," Hatter said so loudly that for a brief second Alice thought that he was talking to her. That he knew she was there. But then that monotone voice came back, followed by several other voices that Alice knew were coming out of his mouth but none that she recognized. She remembered the madness in the Taiga, how even then she had seen bits of the person he really was and she had always seen him there, just under the surface of this insanity. This man though was something quite different and definitely more threatening.

They had entered one of the most northern corridors when she realized that they were almost where she need him to be. Hatter stood at one end of the hall, looking up at the ceiling at where Chesh had disappeared onto a chandelier. As she slipped into the hall and pressed against the wall nearest to the massive windows, Alice saw two of the crows perched on the window-frame. They looked like little statues but one cocked its head at her curiously, peering around the heavy drapes that blocked its view.

With one eye on Hatter's back, Alice sprinted across and swung the drapes around herself. She heard the snick of his boots as he turned around and pressed herself against the wall beside the window, hoping that the heavy velvet would keep her hidden. The crows peered up at her, one squawking loudly and Alice held a finger to her lips. The bird tilted his head to one side and blinked his small black eyes repeatedly instead. Staring hard at the crows, Alice made a swirling motion with her finger and then pointed into the room. The crows both sprang off immediately at her silent order.

Within seconds, Alice heard Hatter cursing and she parted the curtains enough that she could see the two crows winging around him, dive-bombing him wildly. Hatter swung his fist and gun around, trying to bat them away. He was almost where she needed him, Alice saw, and she reached out to the window-frame.

The gryphon mark on her back began to surge up against her skin in response and Alice felt a fresh wave of nausea take over. Swallowing past the bile in her throat, she drew a faint square on the tiny bit of window she could reach without being seen. She focussed hard on what she was doing, letting her emotions about Hatter's descent into madness come out in a glow around her fingertips. The light was purple this time instead of her usual blue and it quickly formed the square she had drawn on the windowpane. Alice continued to draw squares on the glass, but it was a struggle to ignore both the sound of Hatter and the birds fighting and the warm ache of the mark on her back.

When she had drawn ten of the squares, each glowing a soft purple, Alice refocussed all of her energy and blew a soft puff of air over the marks. _Please, please work_ , she whispered to herself as she pictured what she had wanted her glow to do.

Even in this simple act, she could feel the strain of energy it was causing on her and knew that it was now or never for this part of her plan to do its work.

* * *

Hatter finally managed to swing his hand around to connect with one of the birds flying at his head. The crow screeched at the blow and then with a thud landed against the wall. It lay stunned for a moment, its partner swooping down low over Hatter's head to check on that the other crow was still alive. Hatter turned, seeing the crows not as regular birds but ones with faint blue glows of power lining them like a strange aura. What it meant he wasn't sure but he tensed up, readying himself for more strangeness.

The stunned bird picked itself up with a squawk and shook out its feathers. Hatter cocked his gun again and stood ready to fire when both crowds simply chirped at him and then flew out the window. Suddenly in desperate need of fresh air, Hatter followed them to the window and glanced at the stormy sky. He had come deeper into the Manor in his attempt to follow Chesh than he had expected, but he hadn't seen the illusion of Alice again. Maybe he had come too far, he decided. He could see the middle courtyard from here and glancing across at the eastern wing of the building, Hatter could see lights flickering wildly on and off.

He leaned a bit further out of the window, seeing vines gathering all over the outside of that wing so that the brick and stone was completely covered.

"Strange. But not that strange." Hatter turned his head to the side. "'Course stranger things have happened. Mome-raths for example."

There a soft sigh and he turned his head, staring at the thick drapes that were tied to the side. The sound had been so close that he could have sworn that the drapes had given it. Hatter pressed his hand to the wall beside the drape and leaned in. The sound of breathing was so faint that he was sure it was just a by-product of the madness he suffered through but unlike the roaring in his ears, this sounded as if it was trying to be quiet. He leaned in, staring at the deep burgundy material, and knowing that since he was already mad that there was little chance this could push him farther over the edge.

Using one hand, Hatter parted the drapery from the wall and stared at the woman standing there.

* * *

Alice had known she was in danger of being trapped the minute that Hatter managed to swat the crow down but she hadn't been able to summon the will to run. Now that she was face to face with him, she wished she had. Hatter was staring at her with the look of a man pushed past his limitations and patience, and she took a few precious moments to really look at him. He was thinner and more haggard than before, and this time his eyes were an odd shade of green, shimmering now and then from that bright colour to a deeper shade that was tinged with black. The constant change made her wish that she could look away.

Hatter rested one hand down by his side and tipped his head on the side, the movement a shadow of his old self.

"Another one," he said with a heavy, exasperated sigh. Alice, watching him as closely as she was, saw that his finger was twitching on the trigger of his gun and waited. When he lowered his head and shook it as if it was hurting him, she took the chance she'd been waiting for. Grabbing hold of his wrist, she twisted hard and swung him around her, using his momentum and throwing him to the ground. The gun came loose into her hands and she twirled out of the way of Hatter's fall.

She could hear him arguing with himself about letting illusions get the better of him and knew that he just thought that she wasn't real. Which might explain why he'd been thinking about shooting her first, no questions asked.

The gun felt cold and heavy in her hands and she tucked it back into her thick coat as she ran for the door. She could hear Hatter just behind her, breathing raggedly and clearly in pain. She swung around the door and nearly collided with Chesh, who leapt out of the way of her feet with a bounce. They could both hear Hatter running and the cat bristled his tail so that it pointed up in the air. Almost immediately, a tiny ball of white light formed off his tail and blasted back through the door.

Alice heard Hatter cry out and didn't doubt that the Cheshire Cat had let loose with a bit more power than they had agreed upon. With a glare at the Cat, she peeked into the room and then looked at the walls. Using her still glowing fingers, she raked them through the air and with a loud bang, the room started to change. Mirror after floor length mirror fell from almost nowhere, landing with solid bangs onto the floor and propped up against the wall. The transformation was instantaneous, the hall having gone from a simple walkway of mild decoration to that of a mirrored labyrinth.

Hatter was instantly disorientated, whirling from his back to his stomach with a grunt of pain. He stared at the mirrors and his hands went up near his own eyes, as if to block the sight.

Kept safe by blending between the mirrors, Alice pressed her hand against one mirrored surface and focussed. She poured her memories into the glow, inane but important memories that had mattered most to her and felt the gryphon on her back shift a bit as more power was used. The mirrors began, in a ripple effect, to play the memories as vividly as any television screen and Alice leaned against the wall, suddenly tired and needing to rest.

_"Breakfast is not breakfast without a sweet and the Cook uses plain treacle." He put a hand to the other side of her head on the door. "What if I offer an alternative?"_

_Alice widened her eyes innocently. "You hide strawberry yoghurt? Dare I ask where?" she jibed and he smiled, suddenly pressing up hard right against her._

_"I think I can handle permanent now," Alice stated and he reached out to take her hand in his, fingers brushing over her palm gently. "As long as we can share the insanity of it."_

_"I have more than enough of that for both of us," he grumbled though he was smiling_

_"I don't think my backside ever recovered from all that riding we did a year ago. Unless you like looking at my butt being purple and blue."_

_"Blue is a rather lovely color on you, luv. However, I was thinkin' you should experience a wee bit more of Wonderland transit. The train for example," Hatter offered, and she frowned at him._

_"I asked if we had far to walk?" Alice asked, her eyes sweeping over him. "Can't say I've ever gone on a date in Wonderland before."_

_Hatter gave her a look. "What do you call that ride on the flamingo?"_

_"Rather dangerous considering how hard we crashed into the lake," Alice retorted and he smiled._

_"I enjoyed it. You grabbed on quite tightly though I could have done with your hands being about four inches lower," Hatter said and she smacked his arm playfully._

The memories, each more random than the next, overlapped within the different mirrors and played with vivid clarity. It made the room almost deafeningly loud and Hatter couldn't stand it. It merely joined the noise inside his head and accompanied the illusions going around his eyes, and ever so slowly the memories began to overwhelm everything else. Squeezing his eyes shut against the mirrors, he lowered himself to his knees and trembled.

It was only through a haze that he realized that because of the memories in the mirrors was he able to focus at all. For the first time, he felt a bit of the madness leave him.

"So little time," he whispered and flexed the fingers of his right hand. He could barely hear himself think, a merciful thing right now, and his mind stilled and temporarily stopped its constant swirl of madness. He inhaled deeply through his nose, catching a soft lavender and spice scent that reminded him of Alice and he took in another breath abruptly. He had seen the illusions of her but never once had that smell come to him.

The thought of the illusions that had tortured him brought him back to a painful reality.

The madness and voices in his head clamoured impatiently, demanding that he seek a way out of this attack on his senses. He began to rhyme out phrases and songs, trying hard to soothe them so that he could think but nothing seemed to work. The impatient swirls of colour and lights now back in his vision made it almost painful to keep his eyes closed. He opened them again, only to have his vision filled with a mirror image of Alice and himself, standing in a low clearing together.

" _What will I do? If I get stuck here?" Alice asked, her blue eyes showing her usually hidden fear._

_"Then I'll make sure you're okay," he answered softly._

Instead of easing the pain, it only increased it and he cried out, losing control again at the thought of how he had failed her.

"Time's gone. All gone. I ran out of time, I did," he said, his voice changing for a brief moment back to his real accent and tone. "Makes sense. He won't stand beating. Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he'd do almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o'clock in the morning, just time to begin lessons: you'd only have to whisper a hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, time for dinner!'"

The inner madness began to manifest again and his vision went darker, tunnelling as he focussed on his fingers again. The foggy calmness that came made his muscles relax and he listened to the memories playing around him in each mirror. Then the sounds became muffled in his ears and he stood up again, focussing instead on the building humming and trembling around him.

Alice had seen the effect that the constant memories had had on Hatter. She had seen the flashes of the real Hatter when he had watched some of the memories and for a moment she had dared to hope that it was working. He was fighting the memories though, so that both she and Chesh had gone and forced them into playing over and over again. The mirrors were doing more than just playing the memories they had shared. They were keeping Hatter distracted long enough that she hoped to get the Manor to give her a door to the conservatory.

Or at least someway of getting him a bit more contained.

Chesh sank his nails into her shoulder and she jerked.

"You really need to start paying attention, Alice," he warned, head reappearing in her peripheral vision. His cat-eyes weren't on the man crouched in the room before them, but on the walls themselves.

The manor was shaking, like it sometimes did when the Drawling Master changed it, and Alice had to brace herself against a mirror to keep herself upright. She hadn't felt that hard a tremor in hours. Looking at the mirror she was leaning against, she noticed that instead of showing a bright and colourful memory, it had become opaque and quiet. She swallowed and put her hand on the mirror surface beside her, trying to will it to start again.

But there was nothing, not even a flinch on its surface to show that it had felt a bit of her power.

"I think that our worst case scenario has just occurred," Chesh said and his head turned to look at her. Their eyes locked and for the first time in a long time, she saw fear in the Cheshire. "Remember that this Manor responds to those with the Drawling Master's bloodline. You have only a smidgen and only because you're leeching from your child to add to your glow."

He ignored her offended look.

"Hatter, on the other hand, is a full-blooded relative and it looks like the Manor is responding to it." He looked to where the man had been kneeling and hissed in surprise, leaping down from Alice's shoulders to the floor.

"Where _**is**_ he?"

Alice blinked, surprised because she hadn't seen Hatter move. The mirrors had all gone black now and she felt her mouth go dry in fear. Chesh abruptly faded from view and she glared at the spot he had been in.

"Coward," she whispered, damning the Cheshire for leaving her, and went to the door that Hatter had first come through. Thanks to the few minutes of rest, she felt more rejuvenated than before, a thing to be thankful for when she felt the changed air in the Manor. Where before it had almost felt like being home, almost instantly it felt forbidding and cold. So cold that when she exhaled she could see her own breath. The sudden shift in the Manor's atmosphere increased her caution and she reached into her coat, grazing her fingers over the cold metal of its barrel.

The room she had entered was no longer recognizable though she knew she had been her before. Gone was the stoic Regency style of old furniture and stately portraits; it was no longer a smaller antechamber meant to hold a small party. Now the walls were black and neon green lights seemed to ripple back and forth, while the ground was almost hidden by fog and the air was ice cold. Alice pulled her heavy coat tighter around her chest and stepped past the doorway, hearing a strange whistling sound as she did so.

Some deep instinct kicked in and she ducked at the last moment, feeling something brush the top of her head before slamming into the door frame. She whirled low and quickly readied her stance, years of training making her body obey though her mind was still lagging behind. She faced the door, noticing the wall beside the frame was deeply cracked, but it was the shadows beside the door that actually caught her attention.

Hatter stepped out slowly, with an eerily controlled stride and almost appearing to radiate with menace. For a man she had never thought to be intimidating, Alice actually backed up several steps. It was because she knew his normally more erratic way of movement and easy grin that this was like something from some horrible parallel world. Like a strange doppleganger that had never once loved her... only hated her.

And wanted to kill her, judging by the damage done to the wall.

Kicking the door shut behind himself, Hatter stepped further into the room until they were mere paces from each other. The look in his green eyes was guarded, skilfully blank, and Alice resisted the urge to look away. She thrust out her chin instead and stared back. There was no doubt that she was going to have to change her plans now.

"Tired of these illusions," Hatter said in a strangely conversational tone and Alice tipped her head on the side, mirroring his pose.

"I can imagine." She looked him over. "You look terrible. I don't like it."

He blinked, startled by her response, and she realized that he had expected her to say something else. She and Chesh had been right then; they had been doing something to him to make him believe she was really dead. Hatter recovered quickly though, and he crossed his arms over his chest.

"At the very least, one way or another, it will end here. They get what they want, I get my peace," he said as if she hadn't spoken.

"It doesn't end here, Hatter," Alice answered and stepped to the left, only to have him copy the action. "I won't let it."

"I think we're all out of choices." His voice was toneless and she found it irritating that he could show no emotion. When he spoke like this, she wanted nothing more than to have him spout off something in that North accent of his.

"We're never out of choices." His earlier words suddenly sprang to mind. "What exactly do they want? Something you're supposed to give them? The conduits?"

That snapped something in him, she could see it in the way his eyes grew furious, and she realized that she had said something that their illusions of her had said. His hands went from loose to fists quickly and she braced herself.

"Hatter," she started and saw his left hand fly out wildly. Alice barely dodged the blow, shocked that he had actually gone to hit her. Even in the Taiga, when he had fractured her arm, it had been an accident because of his strength. This... this was intentional.

She rose up and blocked a second blow with her arm. It was followed by another strike and she ducked, anchoring her elbow around his lower arm before he could try to pull it away. Hatter's eyes didn't meet hers and she realized that he had shut down, that his body was merely following through with actions it had learned after conditioning. Wishing she could turn off her own mind like that, Alice grabbed his wrist and thrust it away. Before he could try it again, she slapped him across the face so hard that the crack of it echoed in the changed room. Her hand stung from the impact and she hissed, shaking her hand and seeing the red imprint of her hand on his cheek.

Her hope that it would shock him fell flat and she wasn't prepared when he slapped her back equally as hard. She almost went to her knees with the force of the blow and she clutched her cheek, staring up at him in shock. Any other attacker she could have recovered from instantly but not him, not the one person she knew in her heart would never hurt her like this. Hatter's eyes seemed to refocus and for a split second, she saw that he was hesitating. But it was hard not to be angry that he had hit her and she pulled herself up again, going to chop at him. If she could get him down, then maybe she could at least use her glow to hold him and bring him back.

But in her anger she had forgotten that she had trained him herself, and Hatter blocked her chop with his own against her wrist. The block sent a fresh flare of pain up her arm and Alice backed off. It was a dirty move, but he was a street scrapper, while she was a classically trained fighter. She had rules, he didn't, Alice admitted, and sucked in a breath as she took a few careful steps back to judge her next move.

Knowing there was little other choice but to fight him, she made to grab at his hand. He lurched back, as she intended, and she ducked instead, swiping her leg out and tripping him to his back. Before she could move, he copied her action and sent her sprawling against the smoky walls. The force of her fall made her head spin and she had to shake it to bring her vision to normal.

With a faint cry, she ducked to the side and narrowly dodged the right fist that slammed into the wall where her head had been. She retaliated quickly, kneeing him hard in the stomach and when Hatter bent over in pain she struck out again with a fist. She caught him at his eye and she felt her fingers throb in pain, letting her know that she had been sloppy with her technique. She could see the line of blood at the corner of his mouth from where she had hit him and it almost made her sick.

Alice moved back, balancing herself again as Hatter picked himself up and stared at her. That blankness was back to his expression but he made no move to attack her this time. Alice had no intention of dropping her own guard, no longer trusting him, and she edged closer. Still he made no move toward her, only just mimicked the way she was trying to circle him and she knew she had to do something. She made a punch towards his face and she hit him hard on the cheek this time. When his head turned to absorb the blow, she then slid to the side, going to strike again fast to his side and hoping to wind him.

But he was there, impossibly fast and catching the attacking hand with one hand before then striking with his left. Alice caught the blow on her cheek and she fell back, tasting hot blood from where her teeth had cut into her inner cheek. There was another blow, too fast for her to see coming, that she caught just above her eye, not as hard but enough to split the skin. Hatter caught her arm and twisted her around into his arms, so that she couldn't lift her arms to hit him again. Her head was reeling before the force of that punch and she felt only pain like hot fire going up her cheek.

But even if her brain was slow to react, her body wasn't. It knew that she was in a vulnerable position. With every instinct warning her that to stay in his arms was certain death, Alice frantically squirmed. His grip only tightened and she knew he was bracing himself for an elbow to his stomach by the way he sucked in his abdomen. Alice immediately lifted her foot and did an odd hop that startled him and he loosened his grip enough for her to turn. She kneed him hard in the groin and with a howl of pain his arms dropped away. Not chancing him grabbing her, Alice slammed her palm up against his nose, softening the blow so that she didn't break his nose. He shoved her away as he went to his knees and Alice fell to her own, her hand flying to her coat and grabbing the pistol there that she had taken from him.

The metallic weight of it gave her no comfort.

Alice blinked through the stream of blood running over her eye, and stared at the man only steps away from her. Her body and head ached from their fight, though he appeared to be more bruised than she felt, and Alice heaved for breath. Hatter was starting to recover, judging by the slow way he was picking himself up and she took the moment to press her hand to her stomach. She had taken some blows to her face to protect her baby but knew that she couldn't fight forever. Staring at Hatter, she slowly realized that not once during this strange fight had she seen a glimpse of him within those mad eyes.

The reality of what that meant almost tore her apart.

"You're really gone," Alice whispered as she got to her feet. Her knees felt shaky and she watched as he simply knelt there on his knees, bruised and battered from their brief fight. He didn't seem aware of her, shaking his head and starting to pull at his gnarled hair fiercely.

He was muttering, "Make this stop. Shouldn't have helped it along. Should've put a bullet in my head. Should've done it. They said that it would stop here. She said it would stop soon when it came to death."

The words were familiar, an echo of what he had once said in the Taiga, and Alice felt the bitter sting of them as she backed up a few steps.

"Do it... do it. Should have done it before, should've done it now," he was whispering and yet Hatter was still staring at the ground. She lifted her hand that carried the pistol, watching as it shook wildly. The loud click of it cocking vibrated through the changed room and Alice saw Hatter stiffen. He looked up at her from impossibly green eyes, eyes that held nothing of her lover and everything of a mad man, and Alice felt such grief at his loss that she almost pulled the trigger then.

 _"Perhaps you have that killer instinct in you after all."_ Selena's snide words suddenly came to mind and Alice stared at Hatter, who hadn't moved to stop her. He seemed be welcoming it and the sight of his surrender to his own death was as painful as any blow to the face.

But Alice knew that Selena was wrong when it came to if she was capable of killing someone. If she had ever doubted it before, Alice knew it when she stared at Hatter's hopeless expression welcoming death over his madness and knew it when she remembered just how much he loved her and how much she still loved him.

"I can't," Alice whispered, and lowered her arm and uncocking the gun once more. The gun clattered to the floor when she dropped it and Alice shook her head at the sound, knowing what she was condemning herself to. She met Hatter's tortured gaze with a sad smile. "I could never hurt you, Hatter. Not before, not now, not ever. I love you too much."

Alice went to her knees, suddenly too weak to want to run from him, and put her head down before closing her eyes. She heard him get to his feet unsteadily and walk toward her. Alice curled her arms around her slightly rounded belly, still hidden by her coat, and hugged herself tightly. Focussing on her memories that Hatter and her had shared, she let a tiny piece of glow surround herself to bring warmth to her chilled body.

"I'm sorry, but I can't," she whispered. She didn't have it in her to kill the one man she had loved this deeply.

She felt Hatter's hand go into her hair, fisting in the long dark strands so tightly that it hurt and she gasped. It made her tip her head back to look up at him and what she saw there didn't bring her any hope.

Hatter stared back at her, two sides warring within him though he betrayed none of it on his face. The illusion had to be killed, he knew, or else the pain wouldn't go away. The madness wouldn't leave. But something made his other hand, which had been about to grab her around the throat, drift down her neck. Every compulsion that had been forced into him through those long tortuous weeks screamed at him to finish it but at the feel of her skin under his fingers, he hesitated; though he hadn't just hours before when he had killed one of the other illusions.

He could feel the throb of her pulse and hear her breathing, much like every other time before, but this time there was something else. His fingers were almost warm from the glow shimmering on her skin and for the first time he felt a moment of real doubt. This was different from before and his fingers shakily flattened on her throat. He could feel her swallow and heard the way she took a shaky breath as if she was preparing herself for something to happen.

Hatter almost thought he had imagined the glow until it doubled, made so strong that it was actually shining off of her now. It wrapped around his right hand and trailed warmly up his body, soothing the pain in his body and just gently touching the edges of darkness in his mind. He knew this glow, had been the cause of it, but despite that he still was unsure what to do. Weeks of being told to kill all visions of Alice or feel the worst imaginable pain had taught his body that her presence was something to be rid of. For a split second, he readied himself to do what he always did, when he felt something actually bite his fingers.

Hatter jerked his hands away, not looking Alice in the eye but instead staring at the pale column of her throat. Shining dark green and blue was a furious gryphon mark, moving over her skin like a strange living tattoo. It actually seemed to expand on her skin, the mouth changing as it snarled soundlessly on her neck. He had felt its anger in its bite.

Hatter stared dumbly, the madness in his mind subsiding as the two personalities within him remained startled.

The one that had been in control for weeks was so startled by the sight of the gryphon mark that the other side immediately came back to the surface to take it all in. Eyes darting, he saw the intense glow to Alice's skin, the dropped gun that showed she had never wanted to kill him, the angry gryphon Oyster mark ready to try to protect its wearer, and then the look in her eyes. Resigned fear and expectation were there... but not hatred.

Even now, the only real emotion she showing was the deep love he had come to know because of her.

Taking in a deep breath, Hatter felt like the mad side and the sane side were now fighting for control again but he was able to keep his focus on her face. Reaching out, he brushed her fingers against her cheek, feeling the flush there and the fresh bruising. "Alice..." he whispered, voice cracking.

Her head jerked and she stared at him warily. Alice recognized that tone but didn't trust it after such a fight. She looked at him, having thought that he was going to kill her but now she didn't know what to do. Their eyes met and she sucked in a breath. Hatter was staring at her, looking so confused and frightened that she forgot her own hesitation.

"Hatter, I..."

She was stopped from continuing by something hard swinging out of the darkness and striking Hatter hard on the head. He went flying backwards at the blow, landing so hard that she heard his breath whoosh out of his chest. Alice started to get to her feet and felt someone wrap their arm around her throat. It squeezed the breath out of her lungs and she gasped desperately, squirming against the hold.

"Well, isn't this just lacking in death? Occasionally, unfortunate circumstances like these arise but it is always good to have a plan B," one of the Doctors whispered in her ear, dragging her to her feet and holding her still. Alice felt something sharp dig into her side and stopped struggling when she saw the knife pointing at her belly. "That's right, girl. You do what I say or I'll gut you here and now."

Hatter had managed to get to his feet again, swaying unsteadily. "She's... she's real," he said softly, eyes still that harsh green but focussed on Alice's face. He had the desperate look of a man who had just been teased with food after days of starving and Alice stared intently back, almost forgetting the threat of the Doctor holding her.

"Hardly, dear boy," said another of the twin Doctors, who had appeared just behind Hatter. Hatter didn't turn to him but his body stiffened. Alice wanted to shout a warning but the Doctor holding her was not taking any chances. His grip began to tighten around her throat so that she was nearly ready to pass out from it. Her exhaustion wasn't helping either and she couldn't summon any sort of power to protect herself.

"I know when Alice is real," Hatter insisted. "And she... she is real."

"The Drawling Master's illusions are simply more refined than those in your head. Why wouldn't she seem real if he put real effort into it? She's nothing more than apparition. Isn't that right, Dum?" asked the one holding her. Dee was breathing heavily though and Alice realized that he was afraid of Hatter. She kept her eyes on Hatter and he looked at her. He appeared to be fighting something inside, as if the Doctors were pushing him to do something he desperately didn't want to do.

"All it would be... would be a simple crunch of bone. We'll even help you to kill her," Dum said, coming closer behind Hatter. Alice almost threw up at the sight of his butchered face, the missing eye made more grotesque by the skin stitched together around the socket. "But wouldn't it be so simple to kill this illusion, so that you could find her real killers? It would be easy to avenge your Alice by those who had made those plans to kill her."

"It would be simple," Hatter agreed, and his eyes met Alice's. She felt a cold shiver go up her spine at what she saw there.

Sure he had triumphed in forcing Hatter to kill Alice, Dum stepped closer. He leaned in, wanting to goad him, and Alice saw that he was carrying an electrical prod, raised and ready to go into Hatter's side. She wanted to warn him but Dee squeezed so hard at her throat that she started to choke. Dum went to strike but Hatter turned, so fast that Alice only saw a blur of movement.

His hand latched around the chubby throat and he grunted when Dum stabbed upward with the prod. The Doctor wasn't able to click it on, though he managed to rake it over Hatter's vulnerable chest. It split Hatter's skin just slightly through his threadbare shirt but the thinner man simply ignored the pain, long adapted to it because of their torture.

He simply grabbed hold of it even as he wrenched Dum closer to him.

Dum released the prod into Hatter's demanding hand, mostly because of what he saw in Hatter's eyes. While before the eyes had terrified him, because they had been blank and yet mad, now he was paralysed by fear. Hatter still bore the look of a man driven past his limitations but there was something else added there that made him more dangerous. He was going to fight for something he loved and in his long years of service, Dum knew that there was nothing more dangerous.

"I guess it goes with your plan that you want to kill her? That simplifies things if I need to take care of those who'd kill her, yeah?" Hatter asked and didn't wait for the answer. Dum only barely managed a short shriek before Hatter drove the prod up into his belly and clicked it on. Alice squeezed her eyes shut at the sight, listening to Dum's screams and hearing Dee shouting for his brother. But his grip didn't lessen though his anger was so palpable he was shaking with it.

She felt the knife suddenly go to her throat, barely scratching the skin, and she opened her eyes to a horrifying sight. Dum's charred corpse was lying at Hatter's feet, his neck broken and body still smoking. Hatter stepped over the corpse, turning the prod in his hand slowly like a baton. His eyes weren't on Alice but on Dee, the blood staining his ripped shirt from both his wounds and Dum's.

He stepped toward them and Dee pressed the knife hard enough that a thin scratch appeared on Alice's throat. "Every step you take will only persuade me to kill her," he warned and Hatter stopped moving. He seemed to have changed, seemed to have come just slightly back to his saner self, since realizing Alice was indeed real. But the change didn't actually make her feel any better.

For whatever reason, this Hatter frightened her as much as the madder one.

"You've killed my only brother, my only family," Dee said, his voice cracking with grief. "I'll kill this Alice right in front of you, Hatter. I can see no more fitting end."

Hatter didn't move but his eyes darted behind Dee before going to his face.

"After all the people you killed, Dee... I think you should be worried about what I'll do if you hurt her," Hatter answered. Dee started to laugh, knowing he had the upper hand, and Alice closed her eyes as the knife slid deeper against her skin. He wasn't trying to kill her, clearly wanting to take his time about it, but he had scratched enough that she felt the blood ooze from the tiny wound.

The laugh turned to a howl of surprise and pain and Alice found herself being thrown to the side. She stopped herself from falling on her stomach and looked up to see that Chesh had launched himself onto the Doctor's shoulders. He was hissing and yowling, clawing at Dee's vulnerable eyes and face, and Alice rolled out of the way so that she wouldn't be caught again. Chesh continued to cling to the man, raking sharp claws down his face so that large scratches of blood sprang up immediately.

Dee managed to get hold of the scruff of Chesh's neck and he ripped him off with a shouted curse. Alice stared up at him, still struggling to breathe, when a black boot got in the way of her vision. Hatter bent over in front of her, picking up the knife that Dee had dropped. She could only stare at him, not sure what she could say, but Hatter wasn't looking at her.

Dee threw Chesh as far as he could but the attacking Cheshire had done what he had intended. When the Doctor turned around, Hatter was almost toe to toe to him. Their eyes locked and Dee opened his mouth to speak, only to be stopped by the knife sliding up into his rib cage, twisting slowly as it went. Hatter didn't say a word, simply let the other man fall back, clutching at the knife. Dee managed to get the knife out of his side and Hatter knelt beside him.

Through her blurred and pained vision Alice saw Hatter lift his right hand and then slam it into Dee's chest with full force. She heard the solid sound of it meeting the floor below and knew that he had used most of the strength in his right hand. Though she wanted to look away, she couldn't; it was like watching the end of a nightmare and she needed to see it to believe it. Dee did a grotesque twitch before lying still, and Hatter stood again, dropping the knife on the ground beside the last Doctor's corpse.

Hatter staggered on his feet, as if those last acts of violence had exhausted him, and Alice pushed herself onto her knees, watching as he came back toward her. Hatter dropped to his own knees in front of her, and after a moment he lifted his chin to stare at her. There was no sign of violence in his expression though she could see the madness still in his eyes, but it was no longer as dominate as before. She was actually seeing her Hatter in there and it felt like her heart skipped a beat. Like she would with a frightened child, Alice reached out slowly and bit back a cry of relief when he took her hand in his.

"I'm so sorry, Alice," Hatter whispered before sagging into her arms, not aware that she took his weight gratefully. Alice held him tightly, knowing that he had come back to her in some way, and she felt his arms go around her like a vice. He was clutching her so tightly that she could barely breathe but she didn't care.

"It's okay," she answered, pressing her lips against his ear. "I'm here now. We're together."

 


	31. Epilogue

_From the frying pan and into the fire: that always seems to be the way it is with us,_ Alice thought to herself as she and Hatter made their slow way through the halls. It was a bit of déjà vu to think of that; Hatter had once referred to himself as the frying pan and Wonderland the fire. Strangely enough, it was still applying to him and it had always applied to Wonderland.

But the little phrase was so perfect and fitting right now. It was the only way to describe the sudden smell of smoke and decay that now pervaded the air, and the faint glow of fire that could be seen under the cracks of the doors and through the windows. The constantly shifting halls and windows allowed only glimpses at the outer wings of the building but she could see that there were signs of a fire beginning to spread. It seemed to be travelling from the library but she didn't have the time to spare as to how it likely was started.

When she paused to take a closer look, she noticed that the library windows were open and black clouds of crows were flying in and out. Some were screeching as if they were attacking something in the library but would fly out just as quickly to avoid being caught in the flames. As they flew out, she could see that a few were clutching books in their talons and the odd sight had made her pause to think. But the growing heat and rumbling building had made her move on, resolving not to think about it yet. There were more important things to worry about than the strange habits of the crows but there was a niggling feeling that what they had been doing was important.

The walls around her shifted and Alice pulled back, narrowly avoiding a wildly writhing vine. It screeched as it went by her into the next wall, burrowing itself through the plaster and brick.

"Now's no time to panic," Alice said to herself. She went back to the other wall and tugged on Hatter's arm gently. He'd been sitting on the floor, eyes shut and she would have thought him asleep if it weren't for the way he flinched when she came closer. He looped his arm through hers though and let her pull him to his feet, not seeming to have heard a thing she said.

For his sake, she was trying not to panic but she hadn't been able to stop that sinking feeling from growing in her belly.

Alice had felt panicked as each hall they came to felt warmer than the next, and now the air seemed to feel that it was getting thicker and thicker.

 _Definitely cause for concern,_ Alice thought to herself. Especially since she wasn't very certain that they were actually going in the right direction anymore. Not with the way the Manor kept changing its corridors and rooms with frantic quickness. It was becoming a maze very quickly and dead-ends were popping up everywhere.

Escaping the Manor's burning demise would have likely been easier ten minutes ago. If only Hatter hadn't taken that exact moment to lose his strength and succumb to a mixture of injury and sheer exhaustion.

Alice supported some of his weight as they stumbled through the halls, his arm slung over her shoulder. Thin as he was, his listlessness still made him exceptionally heavy and she had to encourage him to walk at times. But as the moments passed, his steps seemed to be becoming heavier and heavier. Alice, already tired and sore, realized that it wasn't just Hatter who was finding it hard to walk. The haze of smoke and rumbling of the building was making her feel sick and she soon started to lean just as heavily back into him.

The Manor was starting to change its halls again, she could feel it in the way the building trembled. They were just coming back to one of the corridors that should have led back outside but when Alice stared down through the falling debris, she could only see a large wall. Another dead-end, and when she glanced behind she saw that the walls had come down again to form an entirely new hall.

"Stupid building" she muttered and for once she meant it. The Manor hadn't stopped pissing her off and she was more than ready to give its walls a good kick, though she doubted the massive building would actually feel it. Chesh growled something beside her, surprisingly docile in the way he kept close to her ankles. He'd been dazed from his part in Alice's fight and seemed to have no more magic ready for use.

The floor suddenly began to buck and Alice staggered, Hatter gripping her tighter to keep her from falling. It seemed to be an unconscious gesture on his part and she wrapped her arm tighter around his waist. A part of him was aware of her, she knew, and she was grateful for that tiny display.

Her eyes rolled up to the ceiling and she glared at the chandeliers that lined it.

"At least give us a hand," Alice demanded loudly and the floor stopped its odd bucking immediately. The building gave a disgruntled groan and a door suddenly appeared in the wall. It swung open with a loud bang and Alice jumped in reflex at the gun-shot sound. Chesh immediately bounced towards it, his ears flattening against his skull as if he wasn't sure whether to run or not. Glancing through the new door, she saw that the newly created hall was stretching and twisting itself wildly, until the walls almost seemed to be melting into one another. Then they bounced back and the floor re-stretched like it was made from elastic.

When it was finally settled, it almost looked like one of the many other halls she'd be in, and Chesh put a tentative paw on the floor. Finding it solid, he glanced over his shoulder at her.

"It's not like we have much choice," he pointed out and she sighed, agreeing with him.

Still leaning against her, Hatter muttered something nonsensical and his grip on her suddenly slacked.

"Hatter, stay up. Come on!" she urged as she pulled him up with her. They staggered into the hall together, Chesh leading the way cautiously. This new hall was long and the heat was growing stronger and stronger. But the wind was also stronger here, keeping the smoke and fog at bay and Alice tightened her hold on Hatter's arm.

"We're almost there," she whispered, more to encourage herself than him.

They were close to one of the side doors when the doorknob began to twist and shake. Alice froze mid-step, focussing over the sound of rumbling that had increased around them. She could just make out the sound of footsteps and people muttering beyond the door and sudden cold fear washed over her. If it was Selena and her men, none of them would be able to stand a chance against them. They were both too injured and weak and when she tried to summon a bit of glow to protect herself, Alice felt the gryphon mark shift on her back. But nothing responded and she felt colder than ever on the inside.

"He took his vorpal sword in hand... and stood awhile in thought," Hatter mumbled, eyes crossing as he swayed dizzily, and Alice felt him start to fall. Even speaking seemed to be a strain for him and when she glanced at his eyes, she saw them glinting a darker emerald green.

"Nice thought, but hold onto it, Hatter. We need to get moving," she whispered, half-dragging him to his feet. She backed them away from the door and struggled to keep him moving, knowing that they needed to get out of the Manor before anything else happened. She could only hope that they were close to the exit.

The door slammed open and they both jumped before they swung around to face it, Hatter's right hand clenching around Alice's arm. Feeling it, Alice leaned her body against his and unwrapped his fingers from her arm before holding his hand tightly to restrain him. They stumbled together to the opposite wall and Hatter landed against it with a groan.

They were only just able to avoid being run over by an overly zealous White Knight, who crashed into the hallway with all the grace of an ox. He was holding his sword in the air and he swung it wildly to defend himself from an unknown foe. The heavy weapon almost sent him toppling backward when he lifted it over his head and he leaned to the side to avoid falling.

"Justalice!" he shouted the moment he saw her. He gave a courtly bow and beamed at her. "I have come to rescue you from most certain and destructive death!"

He waved his sword in a circle above his head to emphasize his words and Alice pulled Hatter further back to avoid being hit.

Charlie glanced around, his bright eyes suddenly narrowed in confusion. "Er... where is the battle then? I am most ready to charge forth with the hounds of War into the jaws of death and shine within the glory of combat!"

"I'd wager you're a good ten minutes too late to do any shining, old man." Pidge pushed back the Knight roughly to one side, ignoring the offended sputtering he was given for doing so, and came to an abrupt halt before Alice and Hatter. He looked them over with obvious relief and then gave Alice a sheepish grin. "Sorry. Once he figured out what you were actually up to and how to get back... he sort of twisted my arm into it."

Alice arched a brow and he shrugged. They both knew that the reason why he'd come back had nothing to do with Charlie and everything to do with the risk she'd taken. His eyes went to Hatter and a troubled look came over his face. He looked back at Alice.

"How is he?"

"He's..." Alice struggled to think of the best way to describe the man leaning against her. "Hatter. In some ways."

She couldn't think of a more definitive answer than that.

Coming up beside Alice, Chesh fluffed his tail irritably and sat down at the door. His eyes glinted as he looked at both Pidge and Charlie. "Oh wonderful. Two more perfectly useless people to add to our troubles."

Pidge glanced at him. "I see you're still alive. Can't think of why I'm not more relieved about that," he responded. Chesh muttered an answer but the tall man's attention was now on the cuts and bruises he could see on both Alice and Hatter. Alice saw his concern when he saw their blood splattered clothing and shook her head.

"It's not my blood. Hatter, he..." she started but Hatter suddenly pitched forward onto his knees. Weak and tired as she was, Alice simply followed him down.

"Help me," she ordered. "He's badly hurt and I don't think it's all on the outside. They've..."

"Say no more, Alice. I shall not mind the burden of his care," Charlie stated, waving his hand to tell her that words were not necessary.

Both Charlie and Pidge grabbed at Hatter's hands and hauled him up so that he was braced between them. At their firm grip he cried out in obvious pain, his face going into a spasm and Alice suppressed the urge to cry out at the sight. She had seen the old bruises and cuts on Hatter's body that were criss-crossed with fresher wounds. There were bones haphazardly set and likely still broken, and his thinness only told her that they'd been starving him to keep him weak. It was as if he had been running on pure mad adrenaline and Alice took a step forward to help them.

She was stopped in her tracks by two hands wrapping around her shoulders and turning her around. Alice choked out a surprised cry and leaned back, her nerves so shot that she was ready to strike out. But Carol's face swam in her already dizzy vision and Alice blinked to focus her eyes on her mother. Carol made a small, happy gasp and hugged Alice tightly.

"I was so worried about you, I just couldn't stay away," Carol started and took a shaky breath. "The minute we got through that door I knew it was wrong... I was terrified but we made him reform the door."

"Mom..., how exactly did you manage to get him to do it? He knew I wanted you safe!" Alice demanded, grabbing hold of her mom's arms and giving her a small shake. It didn't help that she could still smell the smoke and feel the heat starting to increase. The Manor's walls began to ripple and she gave them a worried look.

"It was a matter of persuasion," Abigail said as she came in behind Carol. She was staring wide-eyed around them, barely recognizing her home in this state. Her amber eyes focussed hard on Alice when she saw the look on her face. "Are you all right?"

"Bit shook up but I'm fine," Alice answered.

"We need to get out of here," Abigail ordered. "It's going to come down around our ears, I know it."

Hatter's head suddenly jerked and twitched, and his eyes swept over the people surrounding him. With a strange intensity, he focussed on Abigail. Alice tensed up, waiting for what was likely to be an inevitable explosion. No hint of recognition came to him, nor any signs of simmering anger. Instead, his eyes slid from the older woman in a dispassionate way and he started shivering violently. Though Abigail was clearly relieved, Alice found his lack of response disturbing.

Just as she had found the rest of his listlessness. He didn't seem to recognize his mother and Alice wasn't certain that it would be a good sign right now. He barely seemed to recognize anyone around him nor did he care that he was surrounded. Still, it was far better than a new descent into furious madness.

"The Manor won't last much longer. I can smell the smoke and it's getting stronger. Someone is looking to burn it down, and it is too late to stop it ourselves," Pidge said as he started to guide Hatter to the door they had come through. Charlie scuttled to help him, muttering about the heat as he started to drip sweat in his armour.

"How can you leave your home?" Alice whispered to Abigail and the older woman gave her a weak smile.

"It always rebuilds eventually and the Manor will stop the fires in its own way. I think my father knew it was to happen; he's been cultivating and training the Manor for so long that it will take care of itself," Abigail answered quietly. She gestured for Pidge and Charlie to start pushing Hatter through the door but the young man was dragging his feet, struggling weakly. "For now, we need to get him out of here. He needs to be carefully taken care of, by the look of him."

Her eyes trailed over Alice, taking in the weak look of her and the way she swayed as she stood.

"You need checking as well," she whispered. "You look ready to drop."

"I'll be fine," Alice said, watching the others struggle with Hatter. Carol gripped her hand.

"I insist on it," her mother stated firmly.

"But, Mom," Alice could barely keep the exhausted whine out of her voice.

"You're under shock, Alice, not to mention you look positively exhausted. It's not good for you."

Abigail clearly agreed with her mother, giving a pointed look to Alice's belly.

Alice nodded, starting to tremble though she kept her hands in tight fists to hide it.

"Come on, sweetie. Let's get out of here," Carol whispered, wrapping her arm around Alice's shoulders. She could feel how cold and shaky her daughter was and she gave Abigail a startled look.

Alice was watching Hatter as he and the other two men went through the black doorway. Charlie was talking soothingly to Hatter, like a father to a frightened child. He was telling him how he couldn't wait to hear Hatter's latest insults and that he had new inventions and ideas to show him. For some reason, the sound of Charlie's fatherly encouragement brought fresh tears to Alice's eyes. Hatter and the others disappeared into the darkness and as she stared dumbly at the door, the shock of what had just happened finally hit her.

She had nearly killed Hatter and been killed by him.

Alice's glow, which had been sustaining her for so long, suddenly started to fade and Carol almost jerked her arm away at the freezing cold of Alice's body. Even through the heavy material of Alice's coat, she felt like she'd been dipped in an icy bath.

Both she and Abigail paused mid-step to the door when Alice cried out in pain, her body jerking abruptly. The slight girl went to her knees while clutching her stomach, the glow gone from her body completely now. The gryphon mark on her neck was still moving fiercely, its tattooed jaws opening and closing repeatedly. Carol dropped beside Alice and grasped at her face. Alice was staring sightlessly at the floor before her, shaking and gasping for breath.

"Alice? Alice, what's wrong?" Carol held her face between her hands gently and tried to still her shaking.

Suddenly materializing beside Alice, Chesh looked the girl over carefully. "I dare to suggest that her injuries may be worse than thought. She did use much of her glow here."

Abigail stared at the cat and then at the door.

"We need to get her out of here," she ordered, reaching down and grasping Alice under the arm. The girl cried out in pain, struggling to keep from falling again and Carol held on to her.

"We might hurt her if we move her," she argued weakly, the sound of her daughter's pain breaking her heart.

"We can't wait for Pidge to make it back here to carry her. Get her moving, Carol!" Abigail insisted and she nudged Chesh with her foot. Without any hesitation he leapt through the doorway. Abigail looped one of Alice's arms over her shoulder and Carol did the same. The two women locked eyes over Alice's dark head, both hearing her murmurs of pain and feeling the ice-cold of her body.

"If we don't get her to the doctors, she'll lose her baby... and maybe her life," Abigail finished and without another word, they both leapt into the door.

The last thing Alice herself felt was a sucking sensation that pulled at her skin and agony that spiralled from her toes to her head. Then it was only darkness, the kind she had felt before, and with a final cry of pain she fainted.

* * *

_Wonderland City..._

The woman standing at the railing of the highest balcony of the Heart Palace had once been the most powerful woman in all of literature. She had been feared and respected and often hated rather than loved. She had commanded all of Wonderland after the brutal Taigan Wars that had destroyed centuries of Colours' Rule and much of the old magic. She had once cleverly held almost all of her citizens under the thrall of synthetic emotions.

All had feared her until a stripling of an Oyster girl, a Hatter, the impostor White Knight, and her own son had brought it all down like a house of cards.

 _But by all of Wonderland, I'll have it back to the way that it was_ , Mary Elizabeth, the Queen of Hearts, thought as she rested one hand on the railing and clicked her red nails against the iron rails. She had been planning this since her incarceration, and so far, it had nearly gone to plan perfectly.

It would be a matter of weeks before there was a complete take-over. And she would be Queen again and the greatest ruler of all of Wonderland. It would be easier than it had been before since her greatest foe, the White Queen, had been destroyed a year ago. Easier still since Jack had been... taken care of.

"Your Majesty?"

The Queen of Hearts turned, her red lips pursed into a heart-shape. Her servants had very strict instructions to never speak to her unless ordered to do so but she was willing to overlook this Spade's intrusion. He was a young man, eager to rise in the Court, and therefore very useful.

"What is it, Seven?" she demanded, turning and making sure her red silk gowns fluttered around her majestically. She never bothered to learn their names; it saved on any guilt of beheading them in the future.

"We've received word from the South. The Oyster has escaped our grasp."

"What?" The Queen slammed her fist into the iron hard enough that it rang.

The Spade cringed and cowered, an amusing sight for such a tall man. "But we did get most of the formula, and the Drawling Manor is burning to the ground, if our telescopes are being truthful. Supposedly the Hatter was trapped in its depths and was left to die."

"Which leaves that petty Resistance with nowhere to run that we can't find them and no mad fools to ruin everything. We can adjust our plans for the Oyster." She smiled viciously. "Excellent. And the preparations for the Trial and Coronation?"

"Ongoing. The people were still protesting the Trial of the young Amelia Heart and there is still the possibility of the Drawling Master organizing a rebellion." The Spade sighed in relief when the Queen turned away from him. "The Snake was sending in her men to destroy the Manor but we don't know what happened to them all. We do know that the Drawling Master escaped, or so our sources told us."

"We'll let him bring the Oyster to us. He won't be able to resist trying to bring about our downfall. Allow him into the City if he comes this far and we'll take that Oyster for our own. It will take some careful planning." She paused, considering her most important political prisoner, Amelia. "The people will do what I want them to do. Contact our remnants of the White Rabbit to bring my grandson back from the Ice-slopes of the East. That will calm the populace into believing what we want them to believe."

She snapped her fingers and he turned abruptly to do her bidding. Once he had gone, she permitted herself a smile.

"I do so love when a plan comes together."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued in "Illusions & Destinies "


End file.
